Roman Catholic priest killed in Mexico; 9th under current administration

A Roman Catholic priest has been killed in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, the ninth killed during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The church’s Catholic Multimedia Center identified the priest as Rev. Javier García Villafaña, who had been assigned to the Capacho parish in Huandacareo just one month earlier.

The killing came one day after the Mexican Episcopal Conference expressed its solidarity and condemnation of an attack against Monsignor Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez, archbishop of the northern state of Durango.

POPOCATÉPETL VOLCANO: ALERT LEVEL RAISED AS ASH SHUTTERS MEXICO SCHOOLS, AIRPORTS

On Sunday, an elderly man tried to stab Armendáriz in Durango’s cathedral. The archbishop escaped uninjured.

The conference confirmed García’s murder and said it was preparing to release a statement.

The Catholic Multimedia Center said in the statement that García was shot while driving near Capacho on the shores of Cuitzeo lake.