Sunday, August 3, 2025

Priest was only one in Coahuila authorized to conduct exorcisms

The Catholic Church in Saltillo, Coahuila, is mourning the death of the only priest who was authorized by the Vatican to practice exorcisms in the state.

José Luis del Río y Santiago died on Sunday of acute pancreatitis. He was 86.

Hundreds of people attended Del Río’s funeral on Tuesday, which was held at the Santo Cristo del Ojo de Agua church in Monclova, where he was parish priest for almost 30 years.

In a eulogy, Bishop emeritus Francisco Villalobos Padilla called del Río “a priest who made his life holy through his service to God’s people.”

Del Río was from Monclova and was ordained a priest by Pope Paul IV in 1970.

After he turned 75, he resigned from Ojo de Agua and worked by offering masses at other churches and selling books and religious objects. He also continued to perform exorcisms.

His followers remember him as a devout man who lived and died in poverty.

“During a mass, the devil would manifest itself, and if the devil was close to someone, that person couldn’t look the priest in the eye,” one mourner told the newspaper Vanguardia. “When people asked him if he was afraid, he responded, ‘The devil is afraid of me.’”

Satillo Bishop Raúl Vera will choose a replacement for del Río as exorcist priest of the diocese of Saltillo.

Source: El Universal (sp), Vanguardia (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A woman takes a product off a grocery store shelf

Post-AMLO, Mexican household income is up and inequality is slightly down

0
The survey, which covered the end of Peña Nieto's term plus all of AMLO's, attributed the income gains to minimum wage increases, social programs and the growth of formal employment.
A red, white and green train speeds through a field.

What’s next for Mexico’s growing rail system? Officials share advances in Nuevo León, Guadalajara, SLP, Sinaloa and more

3
Construction is expected to begin this month on lines connecting Saltillo and Monterrey to the U.S. border.
Adan Augusto Lopez, former Tabasco governor and ex-federal interior minister

Opposition formally accuses AMLO’s ex-interior minister of ties to Tabasco crime gang

1
One of ex-President López Obrador's closest allies is tangled up in a corruption scandal with roots in the pair's home state of Tabasco.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity