Don Daniel Arturo Cardenas, the parish priest of Rivisondoli (L'Aquila) who was involved in a road accident on Sunday night and tested positive for drugs, has vanished into thin air.
The priest of Colombian origin, driving a Toyota, crashed on Sunday evening, around 11pm, on Highway 17 with another vehicle. The car was destroyed, he was treated together with the other driver involved in hospital in Sulmona, where a drug test was also carried out and tested positive for cocaine.
His license was revoked and he was charged with driving under the influence of drugs.
Now the priest, the local press reports, is untraceable. He would have left as his domicile a box in the post office of Pescocostanzo, a town near Rivisondoli. In October 2022 the same priest was involved in another accident, on that occasion he left the scene of the accident and justified himself by saying that he had to celebrate mass. He is under investigation for that matter.
The bishop of the Sulmona Valva diocese, Michele Fusco, will bring together the college of consultors to decide on the measures to be taken. Monsignor Fusco and the priests say they are "sorry for the accident that happened to Don Daniel Arturo Cardenas, they are close to him, they accompany him with prayer in this particular moment, they express closeness to the parish community and are following the situation carefully", we read in a note from the social communications office of the diocese.
(Unioneonline/L)
