Mexican priest killed; bishop decry society of violence (AP)

Father Javier García Villafaña was killed by gunfire in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, becoming the ninth Catholic priest killed in the country in the past four years.

The priest’s bullet-riddled body was found in a car just after the Mexican bishops’ conference denounced an assault on Archbishop Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez of Durango, carried out by an elderly man in the archdiocesan cathedral.

The bishops’ conference said that the violent attacks were “a painful reminder of the serious situation we face as a society, in which the presence of organized crime and impunity continue threatening the lives and safety of so many.” In Michoacan, competing drug cartels have used deadly violence to consolidate their power.