Gunman Kills Peruvian Priest

A gunman shot and killed a priest as he celebrated Mass today in the first assassination of a Roman Catholic clergyman since rebel-related violence began in the Andean region in 1980, police said.

A man wielding a pistol shot Father Victor Acuna Cardenas, 52, in the back three times at 7:55 a.m. as he celebrated Mass in a small chapel near a market, police said. It was not immediately clear if the attack was carried out by rebels from Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency group that took up arms for a “prolonged people’s war” in this impoverished Andean region in 1980. Shining Path rarely admits responsibility for its assassinations.