(ZENIT News / Rome, 01.01.2024).- FIDES published a report on priests, nuns, lay people and, in general, Catholic missionaries killed in 2023. The report gives a result of 20 missionaries killed worldwide: 1 Bishop, 8 priests, 2 non-religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice and 7 laypersons.
Although the lists compiled by Fides are always open to updates and corrections, there were 2 more missionaries killed compared to the previous year. This year the highest number of missionaries killed is again registered in Africa, where 9 missionaries were killed: 5 priests, 2 religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice. In America, 6 missionaries were murdered: 1 Bishop, 3 priests, 2 lay women. In Asia, 4 lay men and women died, killed by violence. Finally, a layman was killed in Europe.
As it has been for some time, Fides uses the term “missionary” for all the baptized, aware that “in virtue of their Baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples. All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization” (Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 120). Moreover, the annual list of Fides does not look only to Missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but tries to record all baptized engaged in the life of the Church who died in a violent way, not only “in hatred of the faith”. For this reason, we prefer not to use the term “martyrs”, if not in its etymological meaning of “witness”, in order not to enter into the question of the judgment that the Church might eventually deliver upon some of them, after careful consideration, for beatification or canonization.
One of the distinctive traits that most of the pastoral workers murdered in 2023 have in common is undoubtedly their normal life: that is, they did not carry out any sensational actions or out-of-the ordinary deeds that could have attracted attention and put them in someone’s crosshairs. Scrolling through the few notes on the circumstances of their violent deaths, we find priests who were on their way to celebrate Mass or to carry out pastoral activities in some distant community; armed assaults perpetrated along busy roads; assaults on rectories and convents where they were engaged in evangelization, charity, human promotion. They found themselves, through no fault of their own, victims of kidnappings, acts of terrorism, involved in shootings or violence of various kinds.
In this ‘normal’ life lived in contexts of economic and cultural poverty, moral and environmental degradation, where there is no respect for life and human rights, but often only oppression and violence is the norm, they were also united by another ‘normality’, that of living the faith by offering their simple evangelical witness as pastors, catechists, health workers, animators of the liturgy, of charity…. They could have gone elsewhere, moved to safer places, or desisted from their Christian commitments, perhaps reducing them, but they did not do so, even though they were aware of the situation and the dangers they faced every day. Naive, in the eyes of the world. But the Church, and ultimately the world itself, moves forward thanks to them, who “are not flowers sprouting in a desert”, and to the many who, like them, testify their gratitude for the love of Christ by translating it into daily acts of fraternity and hope.
During the Angelus on the feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian community, Pope Francis recalled: “There are still those – and there are many of them – who suffer and die to bear witness to Jesus, just as there are those who are penalized at various levels for the fact of acting in a way consistent with the Gospel, and those who strive every day to be faithful, without ado, to their good duties, while the world jeers and preaches otherwise. These brothers and sisters may also seem to be failures, but today we see that it is not the case. Now as then, in fact, the seed of their sacrifices, which seems to die, germinates and bears fruit, because God, through them, continues to work miracles (cf. Acts 18:9-10), changing hearts and saving men and women” (Angelus, December 26, 2023).
OVERVIEW OF CONTINENTS
In AFRICA 9 missionaries were killed: 5 priests, 2 religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice. In Nigeria (4) Fr. Isaac Achi died, killed by flames during an attack on his parish, in the State of Niger, perpetrated by an armed group; Fr. Charles Onomhoale Igechi, attacked by armed men, along Agbor Road, in Edo State; the seminarian Na’aman Danlami, was burned alive in the attack by some bandits on the parish where he served in the State of Kaduna; the Benedictine novice Godwin Eze, kidnapped from the monastery in Eruku, Kwara State, and then murdered by the kidnappers.
In Burkina Faso (2) Fr. Jacques Yaro Zerbo lost his life in a violent manner, murdered by unidentified armed men, in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, while on his way to carry out pastoral activities, and Brother Moses Simukonde Sens, killed by a stray bullet near a military checkpoint in the capital, Ouagadougou.
In Tanzania (1) Fr. Pamphili Nada died while being taken to hospital after suffering an attack in his parish, in the Arusha region.
In Cameroon (1) Brother Cyprian Ngeh was attacked and stabbed to death in the street in Bamenda. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (1) Fr. Léopold Feyen was stabbed to death in the area of Kinshasa, while he was in his room, at the parish where he carried out his pastoral service.
In AMERICA 6 missionaries were killed: 1 Bishop, 3 priests, 2 lay women. In Mexico (4) Fr. Juan Angulo Fonseca was shot dead in the state of Jalisco; Father Javier García Villafaña was killed on the road that connects the municipalities of Cuitzeo and Huandacareo, while he was on his way to celebrate Mass; Gertrudis Cruz de Jesús and Gliserina Cruz Merino, young catechists, were killed during an ambush while on their way to a Eucharistic procession in the state of Oaxaca.
In the United States of America (2) Monsignor David O’Connell, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, was killed by the husband of the bishop’s housekeeper who was then arrested and confessed the crime; Fr. Stephen Gutgsell died following a knife attack that occurred in the rectory of the church in Fort Cahloun, a small community in Nebraska that he had led for 11 years.
In ASIA 4 lay people were killed. In the Philippines (2) two Catholic students and volunteers from the university chaplaincy community, engaged in liturgical animation: Junrey Barbante and Janine Arenas were among the victims of the bomb detonated during the Eucharistic celebration in the State University of Mindanao, in the province of Lanao del Sur.
In Palestine (2) Samar Kamal Anton, and her mother, Nahida Khalil Anton, were killed by snipers as they were walking to the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, in Gaza. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Both belonged to a group of women, Catholic and Orthodox, engaged in a journey of faith and apostolate especially in favor of the poor and the disabled.
In EUROPE 1 lay person was killed.
In Spain (1) Diego Valencia, layman, sacristan of the parish of Nuestra Senora de La Palma, in Algeciras, in the province of Cadiz, was killed by a young Moroccan armed with a machete, who injured other people besides him.
