A 55-year-old Tamaulipas priest was murdered on Thursday night in Matamoros.

José Martín Guzmán Vega was attacked as he was returning to his church from a shopping trip. After hearing the priest’s cries for help, neighbors found him lying on the floor of the church, bleeding from multiple stab wounds.

He died later in hospital.

Eugenio Lira Rugarcía, bishop of the diocese of Matamoros, confirmed Guzmán’s death.

A motive for the crime was not immediately apparent.

Guzmán is the first Catholic priest to be murdered in Mexico this year. According to the Catholic Multimedia Center, 26 priests have been killed since 2012.

On August 3, Presbyterian minister Aarón Méndez Ruiz, director of the migrant shelter Casa del Migrante AMAR, was kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and has not been seen since.

Méndez was targeted because he had refused to hand over Cuban migrants to members of organized crime, a colleague at the shelter said.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Associated Press (sp)