Parents of priest in Cuba attacked with machetes in home invasion
Father Leandro NaunHung. / Credit: Youth Praise Sta Clara de Asis/Facebook ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 8, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
On June 6, three young men armed with machetes entered the home of the parents of Father Leandro NaunHung in Santiago de Cuba, injuring both elderly adults with machetes.
NaunHung posted on June 7 an update on Facebook on his parents’ health, stating that his mother “only received minor blows” according to a medical examination.
The priest said his father had to undergo emergency surgery at the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital after being hit on the head with a machete, which fractured his skull.
“The blow to the head doesn’t seem to have seriously harmed him, but subsequent developments are under observation,” he reported.
“Thanks to all my friends and people of goodwill who through social media, like the Good Samaritan, have accompanied, prayed, encouraged, and given strength through hundreds of messages full of love and faith,” the priest added.
In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, NaunHung indicated that the attack against his parents took place at midnight on June 6 at their home located in the Santa Bárbara neighborhood.
According to the priest, that night his mother got up to get a drink of water and found herself in the kitchen in front of three masked youths eating food from the refrigerator. The assailants beat her after a failed attempt to wound her with a machete.
Hearing her cries for help, the woman’s husband immediately went to the kitchen, but the criminals rushed at him and struck him in the head with a machete. After the attack, the perpetrators fled.
Reflecting on the causes of the crime, NaunHun said that the “crisis and hardships that the people are experiencing” in Cuba is what “brings out all the worst in unscrupulous individuals.”
“While many are concerned with helping each other more, the shortages diminish the humanity in the weakest elements of society,” the priest told ACI Prensa June 7.
The archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García, referred to the incident in a June 6 statement.
The prelate encouraged the faithful to pray to God to stop the “escalation of violence” in the country and so that the people living in the cities and homes on the island might have a “decent and safe life.”
“Let us pray that God may give strength to this family and heal the wounded. May the Virgin of Charity cover them with her mantle, heal the injured and comfort them with her motherly love,” he added.
According to the opposition newspaper El Diario de Cuba, the island is currently experiencing an “excessive increase in assaults, robberies, thefts, and murders that Cubans expose through social media.”
The newspaper also criticized that “the official press and the authorities are silent about the problem and only report a small fraction” of the incidents.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
