A Catholic bishop has been shot to death in Mozambique. The shooting apparently took place in the small hours of Saturday morning.
The body of Bishop Osorio Citora of Quelimane was found inside the episcopal residence, “lifeless and in strange circumstances that have yet to be clarified,” according to a statement to Aid to the Church in Need from the president of the bishops’ conference of Mozambique, Archbishop Inácio Saúre of Nampula.
The archbishop appealed for “the serenity of faith and fraternal solidarity” from all in the face of this “sad event.”
Crux Now learned of events in an email from John Burger of Aid to the Church in Need USA. According to a statement from ACN regarding the incident, the perpetrator of the crime remains unknown.
The 54-year-old prelate was a Consolata missionary who had been in office less than a year. Few details are known about the crime, but it is understood that Citora was shot in the chest that his body was found in a corridor of the residence.
Mozambique’s president, Daniel Chapo, also issued a statement expressing “deep sorrow and consternation” at the news of the bishop’s untimely and unnatural death.
Chapo described the loss as “irreparable” for Mozambican society and for the Christian community, saying the slain bishop had “distinguished himself throughout his life by his humility, pastoral dedication, and his preaching of the values of peace and reconciliation.”
The killing of Citora comes amid other violence affecting the Church and the country, particularly terrorist violence in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado.