A Mexican parish will remember the victims of violence in the country with 130,000 candles to be lit the night of July 30, as part of the Day of Prayer for Peace called by the Mexican Bi-shops’ Conference.
In a video message, Father Alberto Medel, pastor of Our Father Parish in the Diocese of Xochimilco, south of Mexico City, recalled the Bishops’ conference’s invitation to pray especially on July 31 “for the perpetrators and the civil authorities, so they may open their hearts to this situation of unleashed violence that we are experiencing and that has claimed so many lives and that has caused so much pain.”
In response, the Mexican priest said, his parish seeks to prepare itself to observe that day “with a prayer vigil in which we want to light 130,000 candles” in order to “remember all those who have died in such a violent way and at the same time in such a pointless way.”
The vigil will be held July 30 at 8 p.m. Central time and will be broadcast on the YouTube channels and Facebook pages of Medel, the Diocese of Xochi-milco, the Archdiocese of Mexico, and the archdiocese’s weekly publication Desde la Fe.
According to the local press, in the three and a half years of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, nearly 130,000 people have been murdered in Mexico. When the president completes his six-year term, it could be the most violent administration in the history of Mexico. In this same period, seven Catholic priests have been murdered.
According to official figures, from Jan. 1 to July 24 of this year, 14,943 homicides have been committed in Mexico.