Priest shot dead in chapel at start of Mass in Nueva Ecija

Fr. Richmond Nilo lies bloodies in a chapel in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija, after being shot as he was celebrating Mass on Sunday, June 10, 2018. (Contributed photo)

Published: 10:08 p.m., June 10, 2018 | Updated: 12:42 a.m., June 11, 2018

Fr. Richmond Nilo of the Diocese of Cabanatuan was shot to death by unidentified gunmen on Sunday  in the Nuestra Señora de la Nieve Chapel in Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija, according to a spot report from the Nueva Ecija Provincial Police Provincial Office.

Nilo, 40-year-old parish priest of Zaragoza, was behind the altar getting ready to start Mass at around 6:05 p.m. when two unidentified men shot him through a window four times.

A Twittter post by CBCP News, the news service of the Media Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, broke the news via Twitter.

“We condemn the attack on Father Nilo as we Christians condemn all killings and violence and all forms of impunity,” said Fr. Jetts Jetanove, vicar general of the Diocese of Cabanatuan.

Nilo is the third priest to be murdered following the April 29 attack on 37-year-old Fr. Mark Ventura and the Dec. 5, 2017 ambush of 72-year-old Fr. Marcelito Paez at Jaen town in Nueva Ecija province.

Ventura was killed by a gunman at a gymnasium after he concluded Mass in Gattaran town at Cagayan province. He was a known anti-mining activist.

The government recently drew flak from priests and over social media when President Duterte nonchalantly linked his death to an illicit affair during a talk he gave in Cebu.

Paez, a retired priest, was attacked as he drove through Jaen after dropping off a political detainee and his family shortly after he was released.

Paez had been a political activist since the martial law years under then President Ferdinand Marcos. /atm