While traveling by bus on the way back from a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a group of pilgrims from the Diocese of Nuevo Laredo was robbed along a Mexican highway.

Bishop Luis Carlos Lerma Martínez of Nuevo Laredo announced that the pilgrims were heading toward the state of Jalisco when the bus they were traveling in was intercepted in the early hours of Saturday, Aug. 1.

“While it is true that, thank God, there were no serious injuries — let alone any loss of life — the lack of security on the highways of our country is deeply concerning,” Lerma lamented.

Lerma likewise urged the pertinent authorities to “redouble their efforts to strengthen security on our roads and thus prevent these types of incidents that cause such harm to our society.”

During an Aug. 4 press conference, Anahí Zamora, the pilgrimage organizer, provided details about the robbery. She explained that the group consisted of 47 pilgrims — including seniors, children, and several families — along with the driver and the co-driver.

She explained that around 3:45 a.m., while they were traveling along a highway in the state of Guanajuato, two men dressed in uniforms resembling those of the National Guard — a federal police force that, among other duties, patrols Mexico’s highways — signaled them to stop using a flashlight.

The driver assumed it was a checkpoint, so he stopped the bus and got out along with the co-driver. That was when the men “forced them to kneel alongside the road, held them at gunpoint, and began boarding” the vehicle.

Once inside the bus, the men began threatening the passengers with their weapons. “They took everything we had with us: suitcases, bags, cellphones,” Zamora recalled.

Following the incident, those affected managed to contact the authorities as well as representatives of the Diocese of Nuevo Laredo, who provided support to the group to continue their journey and subsequently return home.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.