A column of Buenos Aires slum dwellers followed the coffin of a Roman Catholic priest to his funeral on Sunday (12 May). The priest, Father Carlos Mugica, was shot dead near his church on Saturday (11 May).

The funeral took place San Francisco de Solano church, in a working class area of the city. Father Mugica had left the church on Saturday night, after saying Mass, when he was hit by five bullets, fired by waiting gunmen.

Father Mugica, 43, was a leading member of the Argentine movement of Third World priests. He was the first Catholic priest known to have died in the bitter in-fighting within the Peronist Movement since General Juan Peron returned last year to resume the Presidency.

He was parish priest in one of Buenos Aires' worst slum districts - the so-called "Villa Miseria" (shanty town) of Retiro, which has, 60,000 inhabitants. Many of Argentina's Third World priests work in the area, beside Peronist youth militants. Father Mugica was one of the most outstanding representatives of the Third World movement, which has pressed for radical social improvements for the depressed classed of latin America.