Vigil for slain Fr. Ventura held in New Jersey

Vigil for Fr. Mark Ventura in front of St. Aloysius Church Jersey City, New Jersey. FACEBOOK

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – A local activist related to a Filipino priest murdered recently in the Philippines led a vigil last Tuesday night on the steps of St. Aloysius Church here to mourn the victim and protest human rights violations in the Philippines.

Fr. Mark Ventura was gunned down by an unidentified in the city of Gattaran, in the northern province of Cagayan. He was shot and killed after saying Sunday Mass.

Ventura is the cousin of Jersey City activist Bea Sabino, a New Jersey City University student, according a report by the Jersey Journal.

Fr. Mark Ventura was gunned down by an unidentified assassin.

Tuesday’s candlelight vigil was sponsored by International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and Malaya, a U.S.-based group opposed to government-sanctioned “extrajudicial killings” in the Philippines.

Attendees carried signs condemning President Rodrigo Duterte, whose drug war has claimed the lives of an estimated 14,000 people.

Ventura, the second activist priest to be murdered in the Philippines in the last four months, was known for his opposition to mining and helping indigenous peoples in the province.