Pope blasts violence in Mexico as he mourns two slain Jesuits

Pope Francis attends his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Wednesday June 22 2022 (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Pope Francis has blasted the violence that plagues Mexico as he mourned the slayings of two of his “brother” Jesuits who were gunned down in a remote Mexican church by apparent drug gang members.

Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, offered prayers to the Jesuit community at the end of his weekly general audience, saying he was “saddened and dismayed” to learn of the slayings in Mexico’s mountainous Chihuahua state.