Priest dies after robbery,
community in total shock
WILLEMSTAD--The Catholic community in the Netherlands Antilles was in shock yesterday when it became known that Father Alejandro Montoya (59) had died after being robbed at the Bonam parish house in Curaçao.
Justice Minister David Dick, Lt. Governor Lisa Richards-Dindial and the police management met yesterday at 11:00am to analyse the latest outburst of senseless violence.
Police found Montoya’s lifeless body in the parish house. There were signs of breaking and entering. The place had been searched. The priest’s hands were tied together and his mouth reportedly was taped.
The robbers took money out of the parish register, a fax machine, a computer and Montoya’s car. The car was found shortly after Montoya’s body was discovered in Seru Cocori.
Maria de Lannooy, one of the women who had been helping Montoya count the money the parish had collected during Mass, was the one who called the police. When she arrived at the parish house at 7:15am she noted that people had broken in. She called Montoya, but received no response. She contacted the police, who found Montoya’s body in the parish house covered with a blanket after they had arrived.
Dick, Richards-Dindial and members of the police management held a press briefing yesterday at 5:00pm. Police Commissioner Marlon Wernet said that indications were that more than one robber was involved in the case and that it had happened in the night of Monday to Tuesday. He declined to go into any further details because the investigation was still ongoing.
For Richards-Dindial, Montoya’s death was an example of the need for the Curaçao community to return to its values. “It seems like there are certain people in the community that have lost value for other people’s lives. For someone to break into a parish house and take the life of another person is an unscrupulous act.”
Dick said he was very disappointed to see that once more that the crime problems had been dealt with by building more cells. “We have 530 prison cells and 240 more will be built. This will cost the community a lot of money, money that could better be spent on preventing these crimes from happening,” he said.
All parishes in the Netherlands Antilles held Mass yesterday between noon and 1:00pm in memory of Montoya and all other victims of crime and injustice. Father Thomas Krosnicki told The Daily Herald he had been called at 9:00am by Bishop Luis Secco, who told him about Father Montoya’s death.
“The Bishop asked all parishes in the Netherlands Antilles to commemorate Montoya during a noon Mass,” Krosnicki said. According to him, there were a few more people at Mass than normally would have been the case, but many people hadn’t heard the news yet at that moment.
The Diocese of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, in a press release issued yesterday, called Montoya a good shepherd for his parishioners. “We make a dramatic appeal to all parents, teachers, reporters and authorities, now more than ever, to stimulate and demonstrate with concrete acts those positive values of which we are in such great need,” the Diocese stated.
Secco was also present yesterday morning at the church in Bonam. In a first reaction he called on all present to remain calm. Besides Secco, Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage, Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy, Richards-Dindial and Attorney General Dick Piar were also present at the scene.
Montoya originated from Colombia and had been living in Curaçao for 20 years. He served at the church in Tera Kora and later at the church in Janwe. Three years ago he was placed at Bonam.
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