Mississippi parish leader murdered in Mexico

The tragedy of Edgar Lopez, a model citizen in all but immigration status, will linger in my heart for a very long time. I am grateful to Angelus News for asking me to tell his story, but wish it had not been necessary.

Edgar was the kind of lay leader that every parish wants. He was devoted to Jesus, his family and the Catholic Church. He spent years in formal study to improve his pastoral skills while earning a living as a mechanic in a poultry operation.

But, Edgar was undocumented. After a quarter century as a pillar of his parish and community, last year he was deported to Guatemala. In January, as he tried to return to his wife and family in Mississippi, he was murdered along with 18 others, just short of the Texas border.

Pray for Edgar; pray for the countless others who live and die in anonymity on that treacherous journey. Pray that our nation will create a more just immigration policy. Pray that other nations will create opportunities for their own citizens to make a living in their own land.

The August 2019 immigration raids that led to Lopez’s deportation were national news. Of nearly 700 workers detained, two-thirds remained in the U.S. Lopez was deported as a repeat criminal due to his earlier deportation in the 1990s.

He spent nearly a year in detention, surviving COVID-19 while ministering to inmates.

“He never lost his faith, even with those terrible experiences that he had passed through,” Father Medina said. “When he was in the detention center, he called me and asked for books and rosaries in order to make a prayer group. He said that, even in those circumstances, you always cry out to God.”