Mexican priest who defended migrants dies of Covid-19

SALTILLO, Mexico — Migrant advocates and Roman Catholics mourned the death of Rev. Pedro Pantoja, a priest who helped found a migrant shelter in the northern Mexico city of Saltillo.

Pantoja died of Covid-19. The shelter where he long worked, the Casa del Migrante, confirmed that he was hospitalized on Dec. 12 because of a coronavirus infection.

Bishop emeritus Raúl Vera said it was a sign from God that Pantoja died on Dec. 18, which is the international day of migrants.

Vera said in a mass Sunday “here, our Father, was saying ‘this son of mine will be an advocate before me for the migrants of the world.”

The Casa del Migrante wrote in a statement that “he too was here as a migrant, and his journey has reached its final destination, with God.”

Pantoja had worked with migrants for decades, starting in the 1960s, both in the United States and northern Mexico.

For many years, the northern state of Coahuila was especially dangerous for migrants because of drug cartels.