Twenty-six year old Colombian priest Father Luis Carlos Orozco Cardona has died in Antioquia province after being shot by a local youth last weekend. Father Cardon was the vicar of the Cathedral in the Diocese of Sonson – Rionegro, Fides reports citing the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference. The priest, seriously wounded, was taken to St John of God hospital in Rionegro and despite doctors’ efforts he died in the early morning of 13 February, while undergoing surgery. Reports say that police have arrested a youth over the murder. Father Orozco Cardona was born on 10 October 1984 in Carmen de Viboral. After elementary and high school, he entered the Seminary of Our Lady of Marinilla where he studied philosophy. He studied theology at the National Seminary of Christ the Priest in La Ceja. He was ordained a priest one year ago, 26 February 2010. The Diocese of Sonsonate-Rionegro has condemned the crime in a statement signed by Bishop Fidel Leon Cadavid Marin, and by the diocesan administrator and presbytery. “We seriously deplore the cowardly assassination of Father Luis Carlos Orozco Cardona on the evening of 12 February, who served as Parochial Vicar of the Parish-Cathedral of Rionegro,” the statement says. “This shows, once again, the serious crisis of human and Christian values from which our society suffers because God is forgotten and because there is contempt for human life and dignity of the human person.” SOURCE Cowardly assassination of Father Orozco “shows the serious crisis of human and Christian values” (Fides) PHOTO Halejandrovalencia (Wikipedia/ CC 3.0)