Slovak Catholic missionaries in Honduras were robbed by three unknown perpetrators by the end of July. They were robbed of 150,000 Honduras lempiras (some USD 10,000) that were to be used to construct the Chapel of the Lord’s Mercy, the press department of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia (KBS) informed on August 5. The missionaries were robbed three minutes after they withdrew the money from the bank, the Sme daily wrote.
The missionaries were not injured from the incident, provincial head of the Congregation of the Mission Jaroslav Jaššo informed in a letter, according to which Stanislav Bindas from the Missionary Centre in Sangrelayi arrived to the town of San Pedro Sula to meet at the airport two volunteers from the College of Health Care and Social Work of St Elizabeth. They withdrew the money from the bank and about three minutes after they had left the bank, they were robbed.
“They blocked us professionally in an alley, three armed Mafiosi jumped at us, a shot came and he broke the window close to Stano and they shouted “Money!”, volunteer Marián Balej said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “And so we gave them everything. I made a beginner’s mistake, having on me a passport, a thousand euros and a camera,” he added.
The stolen money had been collected from various donors, and thus the Missionary Society of St Vincent now strives to collect money again and send it to the missionaries in Honduras, Jaššo wrote in his letter.
(Source: Sme, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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