A Franciscan friar was killed in a robbery after Easter Vigil celebrations at the San Francisco Convent in the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The perpetrator broke into the convent’s church to steal the offering and killed Brother Wilberth Daza Rodas with 17 blows to the head with a blunt object when it blocked his path, Bolivian media reported on Wednesday. The 42-year-old Franciscan, who was the administrator of the monastery, was found dead by a church worker on Easter morning.
The country’s bishops’ conference was “sad and dismayed” by the brutal attack on the religious. She condemned a growing “culture of violence” in Bolivia, which led to numerous murders of women, thefts and general insecurity in the Andean country. The Franciscan minister general, Father Massimo Fusarelli, paid tribute to the slain Daza as “a humble and helpful brother who met his sister Death after celebrating the one who conquered death”. The brutal violence left him “with deep sadness and many questions”.
Meanwhile, the Bolivian police reported that Daza’s alleged killer had been arrested in Brazil. The police there arrested a drug addict who knew the Franciscan church in Santa Cruz well. After the robbery, the suspect is said to have taken the banknotes from the collection and the safe in the sacristy and then fled to Brazil. He is now to be extradited to Bolivia. (Rome)
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