Bishop Juan José Aguirre of Bangassou, Central African Republic, says the city “is paralyzed” by post-election violence.
ROSARIO, Argentina Bishop Juan José Aguirre of Bangassou, Central African Republic, says the city “is paralyzed” by post-election violence.
“People have fled, they’re in hiding,” he told
Crux via WhatsApp.
On Jan. 6, Pope Francis expressed his concern for this war-torn country and invited “all of the parties to a fraternal, respectful dialogue, to reject any form of hatred and to avoid any form of violence.”
The Spanish-born Aguirre is already in conversation with a local Evangelical leader to figure out who is “the brains” behind the military operation so they can begin a dialogue effort to kick-start the city.
A camp for internally displaced persons at St Peter Claver Cathedral in Bangassou, CAR, Oct. 21, 2017. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Bangassou, Central African Republic, Jan 5, 2021 / 02:56 pm (CNA).- The Central African Republic city of Bangassou has been captured by rebels aligned with an ex-president, Bishop Juan José Aguirre Muñoz of Bangassou has reported as he appealed for prayers.
“Bangassou has fallen into the hands of the rebels, many of whom are mercenaries and people from Niger,” Bishop Aguirre Muñoz told Fides news agency, in a Jan. 4 report.
He described the Jan. 3 capture of the diamond mining town.
“The morning was hectic. Heavy artillery from five in the morning with about thirty dead and wounded,” he said. Government soldiers fled Bangassou after resisting the rebel offensive for several hours.
The Art of Political Murder, streaming HBO Max
Chris Byrd / CNS | 12.28.2020
NEW YORK (CNS) Many people are familiar with the life story of St. Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador.
A vocal opponent of the excesses committed by his nation s military, he was slain by a right-wing gunman March 24, 1980, while saying Mass. He was canonized by Pope Francis in 2018.
Though he s often called the Oscar Romero of his native land, the biography of Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, an auxiliary bishop of Guatemala City, may be less well known. Yet his fate was equally tragic and his prophetic martyrdom equally honorable.
The funeral of Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera (photograph courtesy of HBO)
On Jan. 31, 1980, machetes and guns drawn, activists hid in the ambassador’s office of the Spanish Embassy, locked from the inside. The exasperated group of campesinos farmers and peasants had come to Guatemala City from the Quiché region to seek justice for a decade of suffering. Their struggle began in the early 1970s, when the government of Guatemala started taking oil-rich land from indigenous Mayan families.
In 1976, Father Bill Woods, an American priest and pilot who tried to help the resettled groups, was threatened by the government. They told him to leave. The next time he returned, they shot down Woods’s small plane, killing him and his four passengers. In the next few years, four more priests were murdered, including a Belgian missionary who was executed outside his parish house. All of the murdered priests had actively fought to protect the local poor.
December 15, 2020
CWN Editor s Note: George Clooney examines the murder of Auxiliary Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera of Guatemala, who was beaten to death in 1998, when he was 75.
The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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