An 80-year-old man arrested for the attempted murder of nothing more and nothing less than the person of an Archbishop of Mexico acted with premeditation and treason.

The 80-year-old arrived at the Mother Church of Durango around noon on Sunday, May 21, and tried to take a seat near the sacristy.

Silently, like the rest of the faithful, he listened to the words of the Archbishop of Durango, Monsignor Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez.

What was the 80-year-old man doing at Durango Cathedral?

Surprisingly, when the noon mass ended, the 80-year-old man approached the prelate with a knife. He intercepted him at the entrance to the sacristy.

– Are you the archbishop?the older adult asked Armendáriz, who was accompanied by a priest and two sextons.

– Yes that’s mereplied.

In an instant, the octogenarian pulled out a knife and tried to wound the archbishop. He tore his cassock.

The sextons and the presbyter reacted and ran towards the attacker, leaving the archbishop safe.

In El Sol de Durango, they published that the subject tried to kill Monsignor Armendáriz “with a knife of about eight inches”.

From Duranguense Cathedral, they contacted the police, who arrested the attacker as soon as they arrived.

What did the archbishop say?

The above-mentioned media reproduced some statements made by Archdiocese spokesman Noé Soto, who went to the Attorney General’s Office and announced that they would file a complaint for the resulting crime.

In statements by Armendáriz, published in La Jornada, he gave his version of the violent event.

“I did what every man does when he sees something like that: to protect myself and when I saw the movement of the blade, I protected my ribs,” he described.

“He pulled me hard (…) I saw that he put his arm out as far as he could, and I saw a weapon, a knife in his hand. And it reached me here, at the level of the ribs, ”said the archbishop, Aciprensa.

I felt the stab, but I flinched so he wouldn’t hurt me and I stuck my arm inside him.

Monsignor Faustino Armendáriz, quoted in Aciprensa

As the other three people tried to immobilize the attacker, he shouted profanity, the prelate added.

According to Armendáriz, the elderly man was taken out of the cathedral through the sacristy and taken to the vicinity of the Museum of Sacred Art, behind the church complex.

A woman, La Jornada noted, was the one who notified the uniformed officers. At around 4 p.m. (4 p.m.), the complaint was formally submitted to the Public Prosecution Service.

For the press, Armendáriz, who had complained during the noon mass that “a river of blood” continues in Mexico, said little about the reasons that would have led the 80-year-old man to attack him. He only expected it could be a person who is “angry or outraged” about something to do with the church.

Photos published by the Mexican press show two knives that the octogenarian said he had hidden.

To thank God for taking care of his life and easing tension between the parishioners, Monsignor Armendáriz said on Twitter: “I thank God, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate Conception and the Holy Martyrs, today at their feast they have protected me against this attack against my physical integrity, in the sacristy of Durango Cathedral. God bless everyone for their words of solidarity and their prayers.”