Venezuelan bishops ask for more investigation into priest's death

Published: 2006-04-25

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNS) -- The Venezuelan bishops' conference asked police to pursue an investigation into the apparent murder of a conference official. Father Jorge Pinango Mascareno, undersecretary of the bishops' conference, was found dead in a Caracas hotel early April 24, about 48 hours after he went missing. On April 21 the priest attended a celebration with relatives. Around midnight when the party ended, he said he was going to his residence at the headquarters of the bishops' conference, but he never arrived. Vicente Alamo, deputy director of police forensics, confirmed that an autopsy showed Father Pinango died from forced suffocation. Father Pinango was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in 1959. He studied at the Pontifical University of St. Xavier in Colombia and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he majored in moral theology.

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