Priest shot at altar, gunmen flee

ZARAGOZA (Philippines): Two gunmen killed a Roman Catholic priest as he prepared to celebrate mass at the altar of a chapel in the northern Philippines, police said yesterday.

The men shot the Reverend Richmond Nilo on Sunday night in the chapel in Zaragoza town in Nueva Ecija province. The gunmen, who fired through a chapel window, fled on a motorcycle.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said Nilo was the third Catholic priest to be killed in the country in recent months. The killing left a pool of blood below the statue of the Virgin Mary.

“We are deeply saddened that another priest is brutally killed,” Archbishop Romulo Valles, who heads the Catholic bishops’ group, said.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration condemned the killing. Police created a special force to investigate the attack.

Many priests and missionaries in the dominant Catholic Church have fallen victim to violence by Muslim extremists, syndicates and groups affected by their involvement in the fight against corruption, environmental threats and political abuses. – Associated Press/ African News Agency (ANA)