Catholic pilgrims victims of Mexican highway bus robbery

A bishop in northern Mexico called on the Mexican government to bolster highway security after members of a church group on a bus trip were the victims of an armed robbery over the weekend. Pilgrims from the Diocese of Nuevo Laredo were traveling on a bus when they were stopped on the road and robbed early Saturday morning, Bishop Luis Carlos Lerma Martínez reported on Sunday. Parishioners, bound for the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, lost nearly all their possessions on board, Martínez said.

Was anyone injured? Martínez said no one suffered serious injuries as a result of the crime. The bishop did not share the number of parishioners who were robbed, nor their ages. He did note that hundreds of individuals from the diocese had made the same pilgrimage through the years, and groups typically included whole families with children and teenagers, along with young adults and senior citizens. The bishop described the insecurity of Mexico’s highways as worrying, and called on government officials to redouble efforts to protect travelers on the nation’s highways.