Pope mourns killing of environmental activist in Honduras

By Linda Bordoni

“I have learned with sorrow that Juan Antonio López, a delegate of the Word of God, coordinator of Social Pastoral Care in the Diocese of Trujillo, and founding member of the Integral Ecology Pastoral care in Honduras, was killed”, Pope Francis said.

Speaking after the Angelus Prayer on Sunday, the Pope said he joins in “mourning with that Church” and condemns every form of violence.

“I stand close to those whose basic rights are trampled and to those who commit themselves to the common good in response to the cry of the poor and the earth,” he said.

Juan Antonio López

Juan Antonio López, a community leader in the city of Tocoa in northeastern Honduras, was gunned down on 14 September by an unidentified assailant as he was leaving Mass.

Mr. López was a member of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, work that frequently brought him into conflict with commercial interests and local and national politicians in the department of Colón.

He has been among the leaders in years of struggle to turn back open-pit iron oxide mining, an industry that threatens the Guapinol and San Pedro river water the Lenca community relies on for drinking, fishing and agricultural needs.

Church's outrage throughout the region

Catholic leaders across the region have expressed grief and outrage for his killing.

In a message addressed to López after his death, Bishop Jenry Ruiz of the Diocese of Trujillo wrote, “You told me that you were not an environmentalist because, for you, the social, ecological and political commitment was not an ideological question, but a question of your being of Christ and of the Church.”

The Bishop noted the activist’s understanding of Pope Francis’ environmental teaching and “tenderness and truth” in responding to his detractors.

Bishop Ruiz also wrote that López knew of the risks. “You knew very well that the extractivist and mining system is a system that kills and destroys the whole world, along with the corruption of the false politicians and the narco-governments.”