AMERICA/BRAZIL - Priest killed along the road near Rio de Janeiro

Tuesday, 11 October 2016 violence   missionary animation   local churches   martyrs  

Diocesis Nova Iguaçu

Nova Iguaçu (Agenzia Fides) - Father Francisco Carlos Barbosa Tenorio, 37, was found dead Sunday morning, October 9, along the RJ-081 road, in Nova Iguaçu, in the Baixada Fluminense region, Rio de Janeiro state. According to testimonies of friends who recognized the body at the institute of Forensic Medicine, the priest had sharp injuries. The car the priest was driving has not been found.
The note Fides received reports the statements of His Exc. Mgr. Luciano Bergamin, Bishop of the Diocese of Nova Iguaçu, according to whom Father Francisco was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish in the district of São Benedito in Nova Iguacu, where he was loved by the faithful and had no enemies. "He was a good pastor and loved by his people. Everything leads us to believe that it was a robbery which ended in murder. Our brother was killed with a stab in his heart. Unfortunately it is another sign of violence that our Baixada lives, stained with so much blood", said Mgr. Bergamin.
"Father Francisco had gone to visit a family in the neighborhood near the parish of São Simão, but it seems he never returned home, he did not celebrate Mass on Sunday, something he had never done before..." says the Bishop in the note. Father Francisco was born in Pernambuco, but lived for about ten years in Rio de Janeiro. He started working in the diocese of Nova Iguacu in 2008 and was ordained a priest in 2011. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 11/10/2016)


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