(ZENIT News / Rome, 01.03.2024).- As 2024 is about to end, Fides publishes its annual report on missionaries and pastoral workers killed in the world in the last year.
The annual list proposed by Fides, as it has been for some time, does not refer only to missionaries and pastoral workers “ad gentes” in the strict sense, but considers the term “missionary” in a broader context, encompassing all Catholics who were involved in some way in pastoral works and ecclesial activities and who died violently, even if they did not die expressly «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.
The little information on the lives and circumstances in which these people died violently give us a picture of daily life, in contexts often marked by violence, poverty and lack of justice. They are often witnesses and missionaries who selflessly sacrificed their lives to Christ until the end.
GENERAL OVERVIEW
In 2024, according to data verified by Fides, 13 Catholic «missionaries» were killed worldwide, including eight priests and five lay people.
This year too, Africa and America recorded the highest number of pastoral workers killed: five on both continents. In recent years, it was Africa and America that alternated at the top of this tragic ranking.
From 2000 to 2024, a total of 608 missionaries and pastoral workers were killed. As the information on their biographies and the circumstances of their deaths shows, the missionaries and pastoral workers killed were not in the spotlight, but worked to bear witness to their faith in everyday life, not only in contexts marked by violence and conflict. In 2024, two priests died in violent attacks in two European countries.
OVERVIEW OF CONTINENTS
Africa
In total, six missionaries were murdered in Africa in 2024, two of them in Burkina Faso: Volunteer François Kabore was killed on February 25, 2024 in Essakane in an attack by a jihadist group while leading a prayer meeting with the local community. The other pastoral worker murdered in Burkina Faso was catechist Edouard Zoetyenga Yougbare, who was kidnapped and killed near Saatenga in the diocese of Fada N’Gourma in eastern Burkina Faso. He died between April 18 and 19. He was looking for his donkey when an armed group captured him along with another catechist, Jean Marie Yougbare, who was immediately released. Edouard’s body was found in the early hours of April 19 in Pouargogê, about seven kilometers from Saatenga. His throat was slit, his hands were tied behind his back and his body showed signs of torture.
In Cameroon, Father Christophe Komla Badjougou, a Togolese Fidei Donum priest, was killed in Yaoundé on the evening of October 7. The priest was shot dead in front of the gate of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Mvolyé, a neighborhood of the capital. According to the Cameroonian authorities, the priest was killed during a street robbery. The images from the surveillance cameras at scene of the crime made it possible to reconstruct the dynamics of the murder.
On September 27, Edmond Bahati Monja, coordinator of Radio Maria/Goma, died in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, an eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo shaken by the advance of the armed group M23. The Catholic radio journalist was shot dead by gunmen near his home in the Ndosho district on the outskirts of Goma. The regular Congolese army formed alliances with other armed groups to defend the city and also supplied weapons to some militias that call themselves «Wazalendo» («patriots» in Swahili). However, the presence of irregular armed groups has led to a rise in violent crimes in Goma, with robberies and murders. The case of the killing of Edmond Bahati, involved in investigations into local issues, is also linked to the passion with which he conducted his work. At least a dozen journalists have been murdered in and around Goma in two years. Bahati had been investigating the violence of armed groups in the region.
In South Africa, two priests were murdered in just over a month, both by gunfire. The first murder occurred on March 13. A priest of Zambian origin was the victim. Father William Banda of the St. Patrick’s Society for Foreign Missions (Kiltegan Fathers) was shot dead in church as he prepared to celebrate Mass in Tzaneen Cathedral. This comes after the murder of three Orthodox monks who were killed in a knife attack in Cullinan, about 30 kilometers east of Pretoria, on October 12. The other Catholic priest murdered in South Africa was Father Paul Tatu, a Stigmatine (Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ) from the Province of the Most Holy Redeemer, who was murdered in Pretoria on April 27. Father Paul was killed in his car with a gunshot in the back of the head.
America
In the Americas, a total of five Catholic pastoral workers were murdered in 2024. In Colombia, Father Ramón Arturo Montejo Peinado, the parish priest of San José in Buenavista, was murdered in a robbery on June 4. Colombian police said they had caught the suspected perpetrators, two people of Venezuelan nationality.
In Ecuador, a 53-year-old diocesan priest was found dead four days after his disappearance. Father Fabián Enrique Arcos Sevilla, who had been missing since October 30, was found on the evening of November 3 in the province of Cotopaxi near a landfill. Here too, according to the police, the motive was robbery. The funeral took place three days after the discovery, on November 6, in the church of Huachi Chico, in the south of Ambato.
On September 14, Juan Antonio López, 46 years old, married with two daughters, coordinator of social pastoral care in the diocese of Truijllo and founding member of the Integral Ecology Pastoral Care in Honduras, was shot dead while he was in his car after attending the Eucharistic celebration in the Fabio Ochoa colony in the municipality of Tocoa, a city where he was also a city councilor, about 300 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Juan Antonio was known for his commitment to social justice, and drew strength and courage from the source of his Christian faith. The crime occurred just hours after a press conference in which Juan Antonio López, along with other municipal representatives, denounced alleged links between members of the Tocoa municipal government and organized crime. López’s murder is part of a growing repression against human rights activists in Honduras. Pope Francis stressed the importance of protecting those who work for justice during the Angelus prayer on September 22. «I join in the grief of this local Church and in the condemnation of all forms of violence,» the Pope stressed. «I am close to all those who see their basic rights trampled upon, as well as to those who work for the common good and in this way respond to the cry of the poor and the earth,» the Pope added.
In 2024, the Church in Mexico lost a priest in a violent way. He was an indigenous priest, the parish priest of the Cuxtitali neighborhood in San Cristobal de las Casas, Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez, who was killed on his way back from the parish of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, also in San Cristobal de las Casas, after celebrating Mass. Two killers on motorcycles shot Father Marcelo in his car on Sunday morning, October 20.
In Brazil, a parish worker was shot in the head on his way to mass on Sunday, December 8. Steve Maguerith Chaves do Nascimento, 43 years old, married and father of a 6-year-old girl, worked as an architect and was involved in the preaching of the Gospel and the charitable work of the Nossa Senhora da Cabeça parish. The crime occurred at 6:58 p.m., two minutes before the 7 p.m. mass that the architect regularly attended. Two men on a motorcycle approached Steve’s car. When the man realized what was about to happen, he tried to flee, but one of the two killers shot him in the head, killing him on the spot.
Europe
In Europe, two priests were murdered in 2024. They were a Spanish Franciscan priest and a Polish priest. In Spain, Juan Antonio Llorente, a Franciscan friar of the Immaculate Conception, died a violent death. He was murdered in the monastery where he lived, in Gilet. On November 9, a man armed with a stick and a glass bottle entered the monastery, shouted «I am Jesus Christ» and beat the monks. Several Franciscans were injured and all were taken to the hospital in Valencia. There, 76-year-old Father Juan died after two days from the serious injuries inflicted on his head.
Also in November, Father Lech Lachowicz was murdered in Poland. The 72-year-old priest was attacked late in the evening of Sunday, November 3, by a man who, according to police reconstruction, broke into the rectory armed with an axe to rob Father Lech. The priest died in hospital on Saturday, November 9. A week after the priest’s death, the coffin was brought to the church in Szczytno, where a funeral service was held, presided over by Bishop Janusz Ostrowski. The funeral took place the next day, presided over by Metropolitan Archbishop of Warmia Józef Górzyński. Hundreds of people attended the funeral services in memory of Father Lachowicz throughout the weekend.
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