Just tacking this on here. No need for a new thread, but many have been killed in the Americas for eons:
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,35888.html
Excerpt:
Archbishop Kelvin Felix, who has been the head of the Catholic Church in St Lucia for the past eight years, came close to death as he was preparing to enter his car. A 26-year-old man has been apprehended and is to be charged with attempted murder.
Felix’s Roman Collar was cut off his neck by the lone assailant. According to the St Lucia Police, the Roman Collar saved the Archbishop’s life. The incident occurred at 7.45 pm while Felix was speaking to a man on Peynier Street, Castries. A man walked up to the Archbishop and locked his neck. The assailant slashed at Felix’s throat but managed to just cut off the Roman Collar before running away. Witnesses said the man had been lurking around the Cathedral all Wednesday.
On December 31, 2000, two men attacked worshippers at the same cathedral during midnight mass, setting the church ablaze and killing Irish nun Sister Teresa Egan, aged 72. Father Charles Gaillard, who was offering prayers on the altar, suffered burns to his face and had to be flown to neighbouring Martinique for treatment.
Fr Gaillard returned to St Lucia but succumbed to a heart attack in April 2001. Two men — Kim John, 25, and Francis Phillip, 39, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death and are awaiting execution at the island prison. They said they were sent by God to combat corruption in the Catholic Church.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/01/world/men-attack-worshipers-at-st-lucia-cathedral-killing-one.html
Men Attack Worshipers at St. Lucia Cathedral, Killing One
Published: January 1, 2001
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Dec. 31— Men wielding machetes stormed the Roman Catholic cathedral in St. Lucia's capital during Mass today, hacking worshipers and setting some on fire with a blowtorch and fuel. A nun from Ireland was killed and at least 12 others were wounded, the police and witnesses said.
More than 400 people were attending Mass in Castries Cathedral, and many were lined up in the aisles to receive Communion, when the attackers entered the church, the police said.
One of the men doused worshipers with what appeared to be kerosene or gasoline, while another used a blowtorch to set them on fire, witnesses said. The men burned the carpet running down the center aisle.
The attackers then made their way to the altar, where they set fire to the priest, the Rev. Charles Gaillard. He was said later to be in a hospital in serious condition with severe burns.
The police identified the dead nun as Sister Theresa Egan, 72, of Ireland. It was not immediately clear how she died. At least 12 people were hospitalized, the police said.
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http://www.christianpost.com/news/m...tion-with-sledgehammers-and-pick-axes-109096/
Mexican Catholics Attack Pentecostal Church and Congregation With Sledgehammers and Pick-Axes
A gang of Catholics reportedly attacked Pentecostal Christians with rods and stones in Oaxaca, Mexico at the beginning of November.
According to Mexican human rights officials, the traditionalistic Catholic mob attacked the Christians' unfinished church using sledgehammers and pick-axes to vandalize the structure, according to
Morning Star News. Additionally, four Christians were jailed for four days according to the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR).
The NCHR reported in a statement that the attacks were instigated by San Juan Ozolotepec President, Pedro Cruz Gonzalez, who "ordered the demolishing of their temple, the lynching, incarceration and torture of the followers of the religious congregation."
Alfredo Alonso, whose family has been victimized for years under Cruz Gonzalez, said that in 2011, the leader had tried to shut down the construction of a Pentecostal church building. Gonzales had also threatened to expel other Christians from the city, and had blocked them from accessing government food aid programs.
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http://www.christiansincrisis.net/l...n-one-of-the-world-s-most-violent-cities.html
Honduras: Christians experience threat, danger in one of the world's most violent cities
Source:
www.assistnews.net
Date: 2013-04-18
By Kenneth D. MacHarg
Special to ASSIST News Service
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS (ANS) -- The large type, appropriately black, shouted the message across the front page of the newspaper. "12 More Bodies Found Dead in One Day."
Another vicious killing, this time at a soccer game where no one is safe in this city.
It was a typical, almost daily news bulletin in this second-largest Honduran city. With each passing day the death toll from the country's out-of-control violence mounts.
Everywhere one turns beefed-up security is visible: guards armed with machine guns outside of supermarkets and pharmacies; entrances to tranquil-appearing residential neighborhoods protected by three or four armed guards, vicious looking dogs and roads blocked by chains; electrically charged barbed wire atop walls surrounding houses; and people riding in bullet-proofed cars driven by heavily armed men.
Such is life in what has been termed the world's most violent city where drug-fueled gangs fight it out on city streets, feuds between Mexican drug cartels break out into violent conflict and innocent shoppers or church goers are victims of "express kidnappings" in which victims are driven to ATM machines and ordered to empty their accounts.
"Many people point to the irony that they have become prisoners (in their homes) while, because of the failures in the justice system, the criminals roam free," said Jill Powis, a Honduras-base human rights worker in an interview with the Guardian Weekly newspaper.
In May, Cruz Gonzalez threatened to "burn [Christians] and throw their bodies into a canyon if they did not renounce their faith." After Christians spoke up and called for state intervention, Cruz Gonzalez jailed a church member for speaking out.