A Jubilee year tinged with blood

At the beginning of November 2023, a jubilee year began in the Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, to gather the legacy of JTatic Samuel and of the great events that have marked the journey of this Particular Church. In a context of violence, of forced displacements, of a trail of disappeared and dead people, this year was intended to strengthen the great options of the Diocese.

Pre-congresses were held at different levels to vindicate this history of demands and hope. Throughout the year we remembered: the 100 years of JTatic Samuel, who during his 40 years as pastor claimed the dignity of the Indigenous Peoples; the 50 years of the Indigenous Congress where there are different claims: land, education, health, roads to facilitate the trade of the products of the peasants. We also remember the 15 years of Mother Earth, as an experience always alive in our Indigenous brothers and sisters.

As I recalled at the beginning, it is a year of celebration, of listening to testimonies, of updating commitments in a different context, of mobilizing around what concerns us most, peace with justice and dignity, expressed with this phrase of Pope Francis: “Peace is a cry that deserves to be heard”.

Some of the celebrations were suspended due to the climate of violence and insecurity on the border with Guatemala and in many other places in the State. I want to bring to mind the massacre in the municipality of Chicomuselo, textual: The highest point of this wave of aggressions came on May 13, when a commando of hired killers burst into the ejido Nueva Morelia and massacred 11 people, of which five are women and six are men. In another communication: The Diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas asserted that each and every one of the 11 cruelly murdered last May 12 in the community of Nueva Morelia, municipality of Chicomuselo, had nothing to do with organized crime and that, “these women and men were reluctant to leave their homes despite the violence, threats and harassment from criminal groups to join their ranks.”

The Jubilee Year had two important moments left: the celebration of the Congress, which was held at the beginning of October with the presence of participants from all over the Diocese, and the closing of the year on November 3, the 100th anniversary of the birth of JTatic Samuel.

What was not scheduled was the murder of Marcelo Perez Perez on October 20. We knew about the threats, the price they had put on his life/death, we knew about his commitment, his courage, his prophecy. Marcelo was not naïve either, he knew of the danger he was in, but he continued, continued…. His life was at the service of the people, at the service of the poor, of the indigenous people, of Mother Earth. He committed himself to the great causes: peace, justice, dignity, the defense of life, the defense of the territory… He did it from small gestures and from his commitments in the Diocese.

I want to thank Marcelo for having known him, for having shared in the same Pastoral Team of the Diocese, in Pueblo Creyente. I have admired his coherence, his way of teaching, his closeness, his simplicity, his deep faith in everything he does and says. I did not know jTatic Samuel, but when I arrived in the Diocese, I began to read, I began to enter into the journey of the Diocese, but when I met Marcelo, I understood that the testimony of the great pastor, jTatic Samuel, was alive there.

I believe that we have to understand the life of Father Marcelo in the prophetic current of the Old Testament and of the great Prophet Jesus of Nazareth. In that great current of martyrs of Latin America, who have watered with their blood their commitment for the life of the poor and the great causes. Thank you Marcelo for a fruitful and dedicated life, overcoming fears and sowing hope in your journey.

Humbelina del Caño de Prado

Dominican Missionary of the Rosary

I invite you to watch these programs, it will be the best kind of a church on the way out (maybe you have already seen them):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F26ZadPPeo&t=654s

Interview with the indigenous priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmhChKk282A&t=1216s

Sacred and Profane – The Arterious Murder of Priest Marcelo Perez (06/11/2024)