Violence Reaches Houses Of Worship In Juarez; Wedding Party Kidnapped From Church

The brutal violence in Juarez has reached a new low. It’s one that has many questioning if there is any respect left for mankind along the streets paralyzed with fear and murders.

It seems that even a place of worship isn’t safe in Juarez.

It was during a wedding ceremony over the weekend that three men, including the groom, were kidnapped.

Tony Luna said he knows the kidnapped men. He lives across the street from their family home in La Mesa, New Mexico.

Reoirts out of Juarez say Rafael Morales, his brother Jaime and uncle Guadalupe were all kidnapped Friday.

The bodies of men matching their descriptions turned up beaten to death Monday. Authorities have yet to identify the bodies.

ABC-7’s news partners, Channel 44, say all signs are pointing at these bodies belonging to the kidnapped men.

Now, church officials on both sides of the border are reacting to this crime.

They say men being taken from a church in the middle of a wedding ceremony proves the assasins have no regard for mankind or what many along the border consider to be sacred – a house of God.

Deacon Jim Szostek from St. Pius Catholic Church in El Paso said, “All churches have been considered a place of sanctuary for people who are in need, and these people lack respect for an idea we have had in the church for hundreds of years.”

No motive has been given for the kidnappings and murders.