Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guatemala City (Agenzia Fides) - "It is very important to remember Monsignor Gerardi and follow his example" said Nohemi Bac, 25, a native of the indigenous department of Alta Verapaz, during a celebration that took place yesterday in the Cathedral, in the center of the Guatemalan capital, to commemorate the violent death of Mgr. Gerardi. The note sent to Fides from a local source, informs that hundreds of faithful Catholics and human rights activists commemorated on Sunday, April 26, the 17 years of the murder of Auxiliary Bishop of Guatemala, Juan Gerardi Conedera, killed two days after having denounced the atrocities committed against civilians during the civil war.
Mgr. Gerardi, head of the Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric, had launched a project of "recovery of historical memory" (REMHI-Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica en Guatemala) collecting testimonies and documentation to reach the truth about the crimes committed during the civil war, which lasted 36 years, in which about 250 thousand Guatemalans were killed, of whom 45,000 disappeared. 90 percent of the crimes, according to the report, had been committed by the military or state-sponsored civil patrols or "death squads". To these were attributed most of the crimes (massacres, torture, rapes, disappearances, mutilations) committed from 1960 to 1996, where nine out of ten victims were unarmed civilians or natives (see Fides 26/04/2012).
During the commemoration of Mgr. Gerardi, a group of children and young people brought the volumes of the report, flowers and small wooden crosses with photographs of the Bishop in front of the high altar of the Cathedral. "We cannot forget the figure of Mgr. Juan Gerardi, despite many years have passed, (...) a figure and example of one who fought for a different Guatemala" said Archbishop His Exc. Mgr. Oscar Vian during the ceremony. According to a UN report, Guatemala experienced a 36-year civil war that left 200,000 victims, dead or missing. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 27/04/2015)
