DIEPSLOOT, Johannesburg - White Father, Fr Louis Blondel, 70, was shot in his presbytery in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.

A native of northern France, he taught philosophy in Tanzania for 15 years. In 1987, he moved to South Africa. He taught philosophy at St. Peter's Seminary, Hammanskraal. In 2008 Fr. Blondel moved to Diepsloot, a township of about 300,000 people located between Johannesburg and Pretoria, where he opened a new parish.

Fr  Blondel is the fourth Catholic priest to be killed in South Africa in 2009. The three other priests are:  Fr Daniel Matsela Mahula, in the Diocese of Klerksdorp, killed on 27 February while driving his car, by four highwaymen near Bloemhof; Fr Lionel Sham, parish priest of Mohlakeng (Archdiocese of Johannesburg), killed  on 7 March, and Fr Ernst Plöchl, a 78 year old Austrian missionary of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill, killed on 31 May in the Cape Province of South Africa.