The friars, known for their Marian devotion and commitment to Eucharistic faith, have been a cornerstone of the Nuestra Señora del Carmen community since their arrival. However, sources close to the situation revealed that the government’s insistence on controlling which friars could remain in the parish created an untenable situation. Facing the prospect of interference in their mission, the friars chose to relinquish the parish to the Archdiocese of Managua.

In an official statement, the Carmelite Friars expressed their hope for a return: “If God the Father permits, when we have more vocations, we hope to come back. We remain in ecclesial communion through our prayers and entrust the Nuestra Señora del Carmen Parish and the entire Church in Nicaragua to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.”

The departure marks the end of a significant chapter for the Discalced Carmelites, whose ministry at the parish spanned generations. The friars expressed gratitude for the countless bonds of faith they forged with parishioners, emphasizing the joy of Marian devotion and Eucharistic celebration that defined their work.

To formally transfer pastoral responsibilities, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes will celebrate a Mass on Sunday, January 26, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. During this service, Father Yedris Calero will assume leadership of the parish.

The departure of the Carmelite friars is part of a broader pattern of hostility toward the Catholic Church under the Ortega-Murillo regime. The Church has faced increasing repression since 2018, including the confiscation of 19 religious properties and a staggering 971 recorded attacks on its institutions and members, according to the report “Nicaragua: ¿una Iglesia perseguida?” by legal expert Martha Patricia Molina.

The government’s actions reflect a deepening campaign against dissenting voices, with the Catholic Church often at the forefront of advocating for justice, peace, and human rights. By targeting clergy and religious institutions, the regime aims to suppress one of the few remaining independent entities within the country.

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Father Akalotovich was arrested on November 17, 2023, in the city where he carries out his ministry, 43 miles from the capital, Minsk.  He spent one year in a detention center. His closed-door trial began on November 25, 2024 in the Minsk Regional Court. Although he said he was innocent, he was sentenced for “treason against the State,” according to the independent news channel Belsat, which broadcasts from Poland. The secrecy of the hearing makes it impossible to know the charges against the priest.

Father Akalotovich was detained in the “worst detention center of Byelorussia, commonly known as ‘Amerika’, name connected with “United States spies.” On November 30, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that Father Akalatovich will probably serve his sentence in the sadly famous penal colony of Novopolotsk, where Andrzej Poczobut is serving his sentence, an activist oof the Polish minority in Byelorussia, arrested in 2021.

According to Belsat, Father Akalotovich suffered a heart attack recently and has cancer. He underwent abdominal surgery shortly before his detention. Since his arrest, there has been no information about the state of his health.

Father Akalatovich was born in the village of Novaya Mysha, in the Baranovichi region. He began his ministry in 1984 after graduating from the Seminary of Riga. He was praised by the Byelorussian regime as he gives his homilies in the Byelorussian language. His persecution began after the rigged elections of 2020.

Other known cases of persecution of Catholic priests included the “news of the arrest of two of our brothers in Byelorussia,” Fathers Andrzej Yuchnevich and Pavel Lemekh, who were engaged in missionary work in the diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, in Sumilin, said the Superior General of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Father Luis Ignacio Rois Alonso. He said the arrest took place on May 8, 2024, as reported by the Katolik.life portal.

An additional ten priests were arrested in Byelorussia during 2023; three of them still remain detained, reported the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

Catholics in Byelorussia are a tenth of the nine and a half million inhabitants. Up to November 11, 2024, there were 1,287 political prisoners, among them Ales Bialiatski, founder of the Viasna Byelorussian Human Rights group and Nobel Prize laureate in 2022.

The new law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations, signed in December 2023 by President Lukashenko, limits the educational and missionary activities of the Churches. It also makes compulsory a new registration for all parishes at the risk of being closed. The Vatican’s Croatian Nuncio, Archbishop Ante Jozic, left the country last September 15.

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Since 2018, the Nicaraguan dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and of his wife, Rosario Murillo, has cancelled 5,400 non-governmental organizations. According to La Gaceta, the reason is “non-compliance with the laws” that regulate non-profit and non-governmental organizations, laws that have been hardened recently to oblige them to work in association with the State.

Other organizations “voluntarily dissolved”  are also of a religious character, such as the Ebenezer Christian Missionary Foundation, the Association of the Fundamental Baptist Church of Matagalpa and the Aid for Nicaragua Foundation. 

The cancellation of the organizations arose from two Ministerial Agreements approved by the Minister of the Interior, Maria Amelia Coronel Kinloch. In 2024 alone, the dictatorship cancelled 1,700 non-profit organizations: 678 belonged to the Catholic and Evangelical Churches.

Last November the regime imposed  a law to monitor and regulate the work in Nicaragua of organizations, cooperation agencies and Diplomatic Missions. This law increased governmental control over international entities. The norm states that any international cooperation needs “the consent and authorization of the Government, both initially as well as in its implementation.”

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(ZENIT News / MENLO PARK, California, 01.23.2025).- Dozens of Christians were killed in attacks in and around Christmas time in Nigeria, especially in Benue State. News of these attacks only recently came to the attention of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), after the foundation received reports from local Church partners, highlighting the lack of coverage of such attacks in Nigeria by international media.

According to the Diocese of Gboko, which covers part of Benue State, the deadliest of these attacks occurred on Christmas Day in Anwase, and claimed at least 47 lives, including adults and children.

Father Isaiah Ter, Executive Director of Caritas in the Diocese of Gboko, told ACN that besides the human casualties, the attackers “burnt down the eight Catholic churches of St. Mary’s Parish, including the parish house, clinics, schools and other houses”.

“The parish priest and the assistant parish priest escaped and stayed in the bush for a whole day before they were finally rescued,” said the diocese, in a report sent to ACN.

Benue State is in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a region where the majority Christian south and the majority Muslim north meet, and which has seen many conflicts over the past decades, due to a variety of factors, including interreligious tension but also disputes over land, involving the mostly Muslim Fulani herdsmen and settled farmers, who are often Christian.

These conflicts have become more deadly for the Christians in recent years due to an influx of automatic weapons among the herdsmen. The role of religion in the violence is unclear, though there are fears that the traditional ethnic and land disputes have been weaponised by extremist Islamist movements.

Gboko diocese has suffered many such attacks over the past decade, leading to the destruction of over 20 communities and 32 churches. Prior to the attack during the Christmas period, close to 100 people were killed in a string of incidents between January and November 2024 and the situation has led to a massive increase in the number of internally displaced. With the attack during Christmas, the number of those killed has risen to close to 150.

The most recent attack caused at least 6,800 new IDPs, for a total of 14,633 in the region. The diocese has been helping these people to survive, and reached out to ACN, which has offered emergency help.

Other attacks took place in different parts of Nigeria during the Christmas period, including in the Diocese of Makurdi, also located in Benue State, and in Plateau State which is also part of the Middle Belt.

The Catholic Church in Nigeria has repeatedly called on the Government to improve security conditions and act more decisively to counter terrorist and intercommunal attacks, but crime continues to be rampant in the country.

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Anti-Conversion Law: A Long-Dormant Threat Revived

Arunachal Pradesh, home to 26 major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes, is a melting pot of religious and cultural diversity. However, the state’s anti-conversion law, dormant for decades, is set to be enforced in 2025. Originally enacted to curb religious conversions “by force, inducement, or fraudulent means,” the law has resurfaced in a context where Christians make up over 30% of the state’s population, closely followed by Hindus and adherents of indigenous faiths.

Critics argue that such laws, though framed in neutral language, are weaponized to target Christians and Muslims. The legislation requires anyone converting to another religion to report the act to local authorities, opening the door to potential harassment. Pastors and evangelists could face severe penalties, including up to ten years in prison, for facilitating conversions—a chilling deterrent for religious freedom in the region.

Tribal Identity and Religious Conversion: A Battle for Rights

The crux of the controversy lies in the intersection of religious conversion and tribal identity. India’s Scheduled Tribes, also known as “adivasis”, are entitled to affirmative action benefits, including reserved seats in educational institutions, legislatures, and public employment. However, many political factions, particularly those aligned with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), argue that converting to Christianity—or Islam—should disqualify individuals from such privileges.

This argument is not new. The 1950 Presidential Order already denied similar benefits to Dalit Christians and Muslims, marking a precedent for discriminatory policies. Recent calls to extend such exclusions to tribal Christians in Arunachal Pradesh mirror a broader agenda to marginalize minority religious groups while consolidating Hindu identity.

Rising Violence and Persecution

The resurgence of anti-Christian sentiment is not confined to Arunachal Pradesh. Across India, attacks against Christians are on the rise. Data from the United Christian Forum (UCF) reveals 834 incidents of violence against Christians in 2024, a sharp increase from 734 the previous year. These acts include the destruction of over 400 churches in Manipur during ongoing ethnic violence and forced “reconversions” to Hinduism under the guise of “ghar wapsi” (“return to home”).

In Manipur, more than 70,000 people, predominantly members of the Kuki-Zo tribe, have been displaced since violence erupted in May 2023. Reports of Christians being coerced into signing affidavits renouncing their faith and the burning of Bibles underline the alarming scale of religious intolerance.

A Parallel Network: Hindutva’s Push in Tribal Areas

While Christian missionaries have long worked in India’s tribal regions, the RSS has aggressively expanded its influence, promoting Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) as a unifying ideology. Through a network of schools and cultural organizations, the RSS has sought to assimilate indigenous tribal religions into a broader Hindu framework. This ideological campaign positions tribal Christians as outsiders, further fueling communal tensions.

The RSS’s strategy mirrors its efforts in other states like Odisha, where violence against Christians culminated in the 2008 Kandhamal riots. In Arunachal Pradesh, this playbook includes promoting Hindi as a common language and establishing RSS-affiliated schools to instill nationalist ideals in tribal communities.

A National Crossroads

The developments in Arunachal Pradesh are emblematic of a larger struggle across India. The country’s secular constitution guarantees freedom of religion, yet laws and policies increasingly reflect the growing influence of Hindu nationalist ideologies. For India’s Christians, particularly those from marginalized communities, the fight for equality and religious freedom is far from over.

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One in Seven Christians Is Persecuted Worldwide

Puertas Abiertas points out that “310 million Christians face very high or extreme levels of persecution” worldwide. That persecution has other figures that should be a reason for alarm but that usually do not merit the attention of the main media: in 2024, 4,476 Christians were killed because of their faith, 4,744 were imprisoned for religious reasons and 7,679 Christian churches and properties were attacked. On average, one in seven Christians is persecuted worldwide, a situation suffered by one in five Christians in Africa and two in five Christians in Asia.

Once Again North Korea Heads the List of Persecution

Once again North Korea is the country that heads the list, the number one position of Christo-phobia, which it has held uninterruptedly since 2023. About that brutal and paranoic Communist dictatorship, Puertas Abiertas points out the following:

“If it’s discovered in North Kora that you are Christian, they can kill you in the act. If they don’t kill you, they will deport you to a work camp and treat you as a political criminal. They will punish you with years of forced labour, which few survive. And you won’t be the only one that is punished: it’s probable that the North Koran Authorities will corral your extensive family and punish it also, including members of your family that aren’t Christians.

There is no religious life in North Korea. It’s impossible to meet for worship or prayer, even worship and prayer in secret run a great risk. Official spies can report you if they have some indication that you are a Christian, and their neighbours or teachers could do the same.”

Al-Shabab’s Islamism Situates Somalia as Number 2

The second place is held by an Islamic country: Somalia, especially due to the domination exercised by the Al-Shabab Islamist terrorist group, linked to Al-Qaeda in part of that African country. Puertas Abiertas denounces:

“In Somalia, to follow Jesus is a question of life or death. Al-Shabab, a violent militant Islamist group is at war with the government and controls large areas of the country. This group applies a strict form of Shariah (Islamic Law)  and is committed to eradicate Christianity from Somalia. They had often murdered Somali Christians in the act. The dangers have increased over the years, as the militants have focused increasingly on finding and eliminating Christian leaders.”

Eight Communist Dictatorships Are on the List . . . 

As in previous years, eight Communist dictatorships are on the list of Puertas Abiertas: North Korea (number 10, Eritrea (6), the People’s Republic of China (15), Laos (21), Cuba (26), Nicaragua (30) and Vietnam (44). Both North Korea and Eritrea are in the group of extreme levels of persecution; the other Communist dictatorships are in the group of very high levels of persecution; hence, far from lowering its persecution against Christians, the dictatorship’s pressure is maintained and even increased.

. . .  and 35 Countries Where Islam Is the Cause of Persecution

Moreover, there are 35 countries on the list in which the cause of persecution is Islamic oppression: Somalia (2nd place), Yemen (3rd), Libya (4th) Sudan (5th), Nigeria (7th), Pakistan (8th), Iran (9th), Afghanistan (10th), Saudi Arabia (12th), Mali (14th), Maldives (16th), Iraq (17th), Algeria (19th), Burkina Faso (20th), Morocco (21st), Mauritania

(23rd), Uzbekistan (25th), Central African Republic (27th), Niger (28th), Turkmenistan (29th), Oman (32nd),Tunisia (34th), Democratic Republic of Congo (35th), Mozambique (37th), Kazakhstan (38th), Tajikistan (39th), Egypt (40th), Qatar (41st), Comoros Islands (42nd), Cameroon (43rd), Turkey (45th), Tajikistan (47th), Brunei (48th), Chad 49th), and Jordan (50th).

It must be pointed out that there are Islamic countries that have disappeared from the list, not because there is no longer persecution in them but because the list is limited to 50 countries. In some previous editions, the list included countries with high levels of persecution. Today, all the countries that are on it have extreme or very high levels of persecution, which leaves out countries with high or very high levels of persecution against Christians.

The Mexican and Colombian Cases

Moreover, there are American countries on the list that are not Communist dictatorships, but that have Extreme-Left Presidents: Mexico (31st place) and Colombia (46th place). In both cases, crime is an important motive of persecution, but in Mexico it’s also indigenism and the intolerant state secularism.

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Sister Vicentia Maria Nwankwo, Directress of the Memorial Archbishop Charles Heerey Secondary School in Ufuma and Grace Mariette Okoli, teacher, were kidnapped on the road to Ufuma when returning from a vocational meeting in Ogboji. The abduction occurred in the state of Anambra

Fides Agency reported on a police operation to find and free the two nuns. The investigation is seeking to clarify the abduction and succeed in liberating them. Criminal gangs operate in the region, exacting ransoms. They are not related to the religious persecution that exists in Muslim areas.

Nigeria has a similar number of Christians and Muslims. The Christian community has suffered violence for decades, especially by the Muslim guerrilla. In 2024, eleven priests were kidnapped in Nigeria and three remain disappeared. A priest was murdered at the end last year, although it was an isolated case.

Maria Sobenna Ikeotuonye,the Secretary General of the Congregation to which the kidnapped nuns belong, asked for prayers for the consecrated women through “the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary for the swift release from the hands of their kidnappers” and that they may “return safe and sound unconditionally.”

The action against the nuns is not common in the country, as is the violence against priests and seminarians. Data of Aid to the Church in Need highlights the abduction of 28 priests, seminarians and men religious in 2023.The Nigerian Episcopal Conference stated that there were 21 abductions between September 2022 and August 2023. The majority of such attacks ends with the release of the victim a few days later.

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(ZENIT News / Burkina Faso, 01.10.2024).- Despite the widespread terrorism which is increasingly affecting Burkina Faso, and although priests and catechists are the main targets among pastoral agents, the country has seen a growth in priestly vocations in recent years. Supporting these future priests in their formation is one of ACN’s priorities.

While for most people Christmas is a time of family reunions, this is not the case for many seminarians in Burkina Faso. Because of the serious security crisis caused by terrorism, some must forego joining their families.

“Not everyone knows where to go during the Christmas holidays,” Fr Guy Moukassa Sanon tells the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Fr Guy is rector of the St Peter and St Paul seminary of Kossoghin in Ouagadougou, the inter-diocesan philosophy seminary. For some of these young men, to go home would imply risking their lives, so instead they are welcomed in diocesan centres or host families or invited by other seminarians to spend the holidays with their families in safer regions.

Vocation in difficult times

Almost 40% of the young men at the inter-diocesan philosophy seminary come from dioceses in the “red zone” which are badly affected by terrorism. Despite all the difficulties, the number of seminarians in the country continues to grow. Just at St Peter and St Paul, the number of seminarians has increased from 254 in the 2019-2020 academic year – when terrorism began to affect the Church in Burkina Faso – to 281 for 2024-2025.

In the past some did risk joining their families. For Marius, a third-year philosophy student at the St Peter and St Paul seminary, it ended in tragedy. In 2022, while taking a route to visit his father in an isolated village under terrorist control, he was abducted. His body was never found, but the family is convinced that he was killed.

“Some seminarians have had narrow escapes,” recounts the rector. “One of them, for example, went home to spend the holiday with his family. While he was outside the house, the terrorists arrived. Their initial target was his father, a catechist, who fortunately was away at the time. However, the terrorists, who were well informed, then demanded the seminarian son. Hearing their threats, he climbed over a wall and fled into the fields under the cover of night. Although the terrorists went after him, they didn’t manage to find him. He hid for a whole day, waiting for the danger to pass before he returned home.”

According to Fr Sanon, the fact that so many young Burkinabés want to become priests despite the security crisis is thanks to good vocations work but also because it’s easy for young men to meet people in their daily lives “who witness to the love of Christ in an obvious way”. Since secularisation is not yet as present in Burkina Faso as it is in Europe, Fr Sanon explains that the awakening of a vocation is easier “than in a materialist context where you don’t expect anything of God”.

The challenges of forming future priests

The rector says that the number of seminarians at St Peter and St Paul is so great that there isn’t even enough space for them all. “We’ve converted community rooms into little units separated by partitions to accommodate them. However, the conditions are far from ideal for their studies, and even that hasn’t been enough to be able to welcome everyone, so we’ve had to accommodate 22 seminarians outside and send another 11 to a seminary in Mali.”

Fr Sanon underlines the importance of good formation of future priests for the credibility of the Church. “It’s crucial that future priests can give authentic witness to their faith, that they have really been able to meet Christ personally, that the Gospel is their food and their passion.”

Another major challenge in the formation of future priests lies in social concerns related to the co-existence of different religions, exacerbated by the security situation in Burkina Faso: “There are different terrorist groups in Burkina Faso. Some of them kill people without distinction, whether they are Muslim or Christian. Others, in contrast, who want to impose sharia, target Christians directly. Before terrorism, co-existence between Muslims and Christians was no problem, even in our families, which were often made up of several religions. Many seminarians have Muslim parents, and although that may initially have caused disappointment, at the end of the day it wasn’t a problem. However, today if you’re not careful, social cohesion can be threatened. That is why it is crucial to form future priests who promote communion, because the Church, at the service of society, must work for unity.”

Since Burkinabé dioceses are often unable to mobilise the necessary financial resources for quality seminary formation, ACN supports them in this important task. “I want to express my deep gratitude to ACN and all its generous benefactors who give sacrificially so that we can form Burkina Faso’s future priests,” says Fr Sanon. “Some of our seminarians are in a precarious situation; they don’t receive any help from their families, because these are in a sorry condition: displaced or prevented by the terrorists from bringing in the harvest. Thanks to ACN’s support we can finance their formation and that of their teachers.”

He adds: “Often, you can only appreciate things you have lost. Here, if you ask someone what he wants, he replies: peace. May the grace of the Infant Jesus reach all our hearts. I also pray for peace for all our benefactors: a peace which only the Infant Jesus can bring, a deep peace which the world cannot give.”

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(ZENIT News / Pakistan, 01.09.2024).- The tragic death of Suleman Masih, a 24-year-old Christian, has shocked the local community and once again highlighted the challenges faced by Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan. Suleman was attacked on December 29, 2024, in Kot Saadullah, Rahawali, Gujranwala, and succumbed to his injuries on New Year’s Day.

According to information provided to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) by the Pakistani priest, Fr Lazar Aslam OFM, Suleman Masih was a very hardworking and entrepreneurial young man. He began his journey collecting waste materials and with a lot of efforts eventually acquired agricultural machinery to work on wheat and rice fields. Over the past year, he achieved considerable success, managing 25 acres of land and owning a vehicle.

However, his success made him a target of hostility due to jealousy. For six months, Suleman endured threats, attacks and harassment, including intentional damage to his machinery and the destruction of his crops. Despite reporting these incidents to the authorities, there was little to no action, leaving him vulnerable to further violence, Fr Aslam tells ACN.

On December 29, Suleman was brutally attacked and shot, sustaining severe kidney damage. He died on January 1. Another individual, who was also injured in the incident, initially gave a false statement, under police pressure. However, eyewitness accounts revealed that Suleman was an innocent victim of a deliberate attack.

So far, four of the five attackers have been arrested. However, the main perpetrator remains at large.

This case is a reminder of the challenges Christians and other minorities face in Pakistan and the importance of strengthening justice and equality under the law.  Aid to the Church in Need has repeatedly reported and denounced this situation.

Fr Lazar Aslam and Suleman’s family call for justice and urge both local and international authorities to take decisive action to protect religious minorities and prevent further acts of violence and social and religious discrimination.

ACN project partner, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), visited the victim’s family after the incident and participated in the memorial service on January 4. After carrying out a fact-finding mission, the NCJP concluded that the incident was “a case of religious discrimination”.

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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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