Clint Catholic priest reportedly the victim of failed “virtual kidnapping”

The Catholic priest reportedly kidnapped while celebrating mass in Juarez is back home safe, Elizabeth O’Hara, with the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, said.

Tuesday evening, the diocese was warned Father Faustino Oritz-Suarez, of San Lorenzo Parish in Clint, Texas, had been kidnapped. The incident appeared to be a failed “virtual kidnapping.”

According to the FBI, kidnappers threaten the victim to “drop out of site” while they use the victim’s personal information, including phone numbers, to demand a ransom. If the victim fails to “disappear,” the perpetrator threatens harm the victim’s family and friends.

The Diocese said it does not know if this is how Father Faustino’s “kidnapping” unfolded. It revealed a ransom of $5,000 was demanded of the parish – but never paid.

Father Faustino “determined t his life was not in danger” and returned to El Paso unharmed.

The Diocese said the FBI and Juarez police are investigating the incident.