Domingo del Barrio Batz

About Domingo del Barrio Batz

Domingo del Barrio Batz was a married Guatemalan layman active in Catholic Action. He served as sacristan at San Gaspar in Chajul and accompanied José María Gran Cirera on parish visits.

The missionary Darío Taveras identifies Domingo’s wife as María Asicona and describes him as a father of three. Taveras recounts a farewell in which Domingo expressed concern that he might not return from the journey. His account also remembers Gran Cirera urging Domingo to remain with his family, and Domingo insisting on accompanying him. These remembered conversations convey the danger surrounding their work; their wording is preserved through a later account, not a contemporary transcript.

Domingo and Gran Cirera were killed together on June 4, 1980. The Catholic Church beatified Domingo with nine other Quiché martyrs in 2021.

The letter of April 23, 2021, authorized their designation as blesseds and an annual celebration on June 4, subject to the places and manner established by church law. That wording does not place Domingo on a universal calendar or specify a universal liturgical rank.

Speaking about the group at the time of the beatification, Quiché’s bishop, Rosolino Bianchetti Boffelli, connected remembrance with reconciliation. In an interview published by Vatican News, he described communities still carrying wounds from the killings and called for healing rather than revenge. He also related their memory to contemporary poverty, exploitation and forced migration. His comments describe the meaning the diocese gave the beatification in 2021; they do not establish additional episodes in Domingo’s individual life.