By David Agren • Catholic News Service • Posted July 7, 2016

MEXICO CITY (CNS) — An attack on four high school-age seminarians by pro-government thugs has sparked outrage in Venezuela and underscored the tense political situation and social unrest in the South American country.

It also showed the challenges of church-state relations in a country plagued by polarized politics and violence and suffering through shortages of everything from food to medicines to Communion wine for celebrating Mass.

The four minor seminary students, ages 14-16, and the younger brother of one of the seminarians were walking to English classes in the city of Merida July 1 when they passed a political protest, Father Luis Enrique Rojas Ruiz, pastor at the Merida cathedral, told Catholic News Service.

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The protest was interrupted by masked individuals, who asked the seminarians, “Are you opposition or chavistas?” according to Father Rojas.

The seminarians responded, “We’re seminarians,” which provoked a physical attacks and included the assailants tearing off the young men’s clothing, robbing and beating them. The assailants also “threatened to burn one of the seminarians alive.”

“This set off a series of protests,” Father Rojas said, adding that the church had put itself on the side of the poor, but had stayed out of politics. “We’re suffering a humanitarian crisis (in Venezuela) in every sense.”

Thousands subsequently took to the streets of Merida, approximately 320 miles from the capital, Caracas, to protest. Mass was celebrated July 4 at the St. Bonaventure Seminary.

The attack on the seminarians “shows us the intransigence, fanaticism and impunity that has taken over the streets,” Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardozo of Merida said in a statement. “This is not the way to resolve differences, which can exist in society, and it is what is leading us into this climate of violence and desperation and discredits a government that is not concerned with the well-being of its citizens.”

Mayor Carlos Garcia of Merida posted a photo on Facebook July 1, showing three naked individuals fleeing in the street.