With deep pain, helplessness, and courage, parish priest José de Jesús Pérez Negrete denounced this Saturday the theft of the Tabernacle that contained the Blessed Sacrament at the Church of Our Lady of Hope, belonging to the parish of Santa María de Guadalupe, Queen of the Apostles, in the community of San Bartolo de Berrios. The events took place during the night of Friday, May 22, and the early hours of Saturday, May 23, 2026, in an act described as desecration and a grave offense to the Catholic faith.
Through a message shared on social media, the priest conveyed the distressing news that has shocked the local faithful and the Archdiocese of León. “The tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament has been stolen”, stated Pérez Negrete, who issued an urgent call to the parish community and to all the people of God.
In his statement, the parish priest clearly expressed: “I call on all those who know anything, whoever knows something, to speak up, to report it, and to let me or any authority know. Likewise, all those who are accomplices in the theft are equally responsible, and by the same token, anyone who covers for them—whether a family member or anyone else—is also sharing in the same crime and the same evil. Let us be honest; let us work so that our persons and our property are respected, and in the same way, so that everyone else’s are respected”.
He concluded with a harsh reflection that captures the sense of outrage: “The day respect is denied to the Lord, to our Lord Jesus Christ, as a society we are automatically destroying ourselves”. This phrase has become the main echo of the widespread condemnation of the sacrilege.
The Archdiocese of León issued an official statement firmly condemning the incident. “Any desecration of a sacred place constitutes a grave offense against God, an affront to the faith of the believing people, and a wound to the ecclesial community that finds in the church a space for encounter with Christ, for prayer, and for the celebration of the sacraments”, the institution noted. The archdiocese announced that liturgical acts of reparation and atonement will soon be held in the affected church to spiritually heal the community.
The perpetrators entered the church by forcing the doors and removed the Tabernacle, the sacred vessel in which the consecrated Eucharistic bread is kept. This type of theft represents not only a material crime but also a profound symbolic attack on what is most sacred in the faith. The Blessed Sacrament is the center of ecclesial life; to desecrate it is tantamount to a direct assault on the living and true God in the midst of the people.
The parish of Santa María de Guadalupe, Queen of the Apostles, serves several communities in San Felipe, an area that has recently experienced other episodes of violence. On May 19, 2025, the same locality of San Bartolo de Berrios was the scene of a massacre that claimed the lives of seven young people, leaving the population in a state of mourning and constant alert. This new outrage against the church adds pain to an already battered community.
“Let us be honest”, the priest insisted. His message goes beyond condemning the theft; it directly challenges possible accomplices and society as a whole: anyone who remains silent or protects those responsible shares the same moral and legal responsibility.
This sacrilegious theft is not an isolated incident in Mexico; in recent years several similar cases have been recorded in different dioceses, prompting bishops to demand greater protection for churches and to recall the gravity of sacrilege. However, in San Bartolo de Berrios the impact is particularly painful due to its proximity and the context of insecurity.
The Archdiocese of León and Father José de Jesús Pérez Negrete have made it clear that they will not stand idly by. They demand justice, truth, and above all a return to fundamental respect for God and for others, because, as the parish priest rightly stated, when respect for Jesus Christ is lost, society as a whole begins to destroy itself.
The Catholic community of San Felipe now hopes not only for the recovery of the Tabernacle, but also that this painful episode will prompt deep reflection on the values that sustain human coexistence. Meanwhile, the doors of the Church of Hope remain a silent reminder that faith, even wounded, continues to cry out for justice and reparation.