Spanish archbishop recounts encounter with gunmen during Mexico visit

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 15, 2025 / 12:34 pm

The archbishop of Oviedo in Spain, Jesús Sanz, was momentarily held at gunpoint but was allowed to proceed unharmed by hooded men with machine guns in Mexico during a recent trip to support the establishment of a new mission in the Diocese of Tlapa in the state of Guerrero.

Sanz visited the area to promote a new mission headed by two priests and a deacon belonging to the Lumen Dei (Light of God) Association.

In an interview released by the archdiocese, the prelate noted that “it’s perhaps one of the most violent areas in Mexico,” with two aspects: one “very basic, very primal” as in personal vendettas and the other related to drug trafficking.

“A priest and I were going to celebrate Holy Mass in a small community on a Sunday. Then, on one of the curves [in the road], three hooded men with machine guns appeared. They stopped our vehicle and asked us who we were and where we were going. When we told them we were missionary priests, they said, ‘Don’t worry, go on ahead,’ and that was that,” the archbishop recounted.

For the prelate “seeing people pointing guns at you whose faces you can’t see” instills a certain feeling, “but beyond that understandable fear, it didn’t have any major consequences, and the missionaries are always highly respected,” he added.

These types of traffic stops, known as checkpoints, are often linked to organized crime gangs that monitor access to highways and roads to prevent the presence of rival groups.

The “Narcomap of Mexico,” prepared by the local newspaper Milenio, estimates that 24 crime gangs are fighting over territory in Guerrero.

It was also in the state of Guerrero that the murder of Father Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada, a member of the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, took place earlier this month.

New mission in San Pedro el Viejo

The new missionaries are based in San Pedro el Viejo, a village with just over 150 inhabitants where almost all of the inhabitants speak Mixtec rather than Spanish.

According to the Archdiocese of Oviedo, launching this missionary effort is due to the prelate’s friendship, dating back to seminary days, with a priest from the Archdiocese of Toledo who has been working in the area for some time and asked for his help, given the complexity of this task.

The new mission will bring the Gospel to an area of ​​very remote villages, with rugged mountainous terrain where the apostolic work must begin “from practically nothing,” Father Dionisio Serrano Pascual, secretary general of Lumen Dei, told the archdiocese.

Sanz explained that the missionaries will be in charge of 45 parishes and that they will not be the last ones to be sent, as the possibility of more diocesan priests from Oviedo coming to the area is already being considered.

“The Church is missionary. And when Jesus departs from his disciples, he tells them: ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel, the Good News.’ To lose this missionary concern is to lose our identity as Christians,” the prelate pointed out.

From his experience accompanying the missionaries in their new assignment, the archbishop of Oviedo emphasized, in addition to the fact that children and young people are a source of hope, that the older ones still bear “the legacy of that first evangelization, centuries ago, which took place through the presence of my Franciscan brothers. And since they haven’t always been able to be supported by a priestly presence, they have passed on, through word of mouth, the faith they have received and the rudiments they learned in catechism.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.