In the early hours of the morning on Holy Saturday, several individuals in hoods charged into a Eucharistic adoration chapel in the Mexican Diocese of Tlaxcala, assaulting and robbing the faithful in attendance and stealing the ciborium containing the consecrated hosts.
In an April 4 statement, Bishop Julio C. Salcedo Aquino said the faithful, who were praying at Eucharistic adoration in the town of San Lucas Cuauhtelulpan, "were threatened, beaten, and stripped of their belongings."
"We deplore this incident, above all for the lives and physical and spiritual well-being of the people who suffered this outrage," he said, expressing his hope "that they may soon regain their peace and their physical and spiritual equilibrium."
The bishop said that "these events wound us deeply, for among the offenses committed against the Catholic faith, the theft of the Eucharist constitutes one of the most grave," reminding his listeners that those who commit this sin automatically incur excommunication.
Furthermore, he emphasized that "these events, perpetrated on Holy Saturday, lead us as the Church in Tlaxcala to live in close solidarity with Mary Magdalene, who heads to the tomb to honor the body of Jesus and, finding it empty, hurries to inform the apostle Peter, telling him: 'They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid him.'"
Salcedo issued a call "to pray intensely for the people who stole the holy Eucharist," so that they may return it and be converted.
The prelate also asked all parish priests in the Diocese of Tlaxcala to organize "Days of Eucharistic Prayer" and announced that on Saturday, April 11, he will perform a rite of reparation at the Church of San Lucas Cuauhtelulpan.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
