Missionaries Killed

VATICAN - MISSIONARIES KILLED IN THE YEAR 2021

Thursday, 30 December 2021

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – According to information gathered by Agenzia Fides, in 2021 22 missionaries were killed in the world: 13 priests, 1 religious man, 2 religious women, 6 lay persons. This year the highest number of missionaries killed was registered in Africa, where 11 missionaries (7 priests, 2 religious women, 2 lay persons) were killed, followed by America, where 7 missionaries (4 priests, 1 religious man, 2 lay persons) where killed. In Asia, 3 missionaries (1 priest, 2 lay persons) were killed, and Europe, where 1 priest was killed. From 2020 to 2020, according to data in our possession, 536 missionaries have been killed in the world.
As it has been for some time, the annual list of Fides does not look only to Missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but tries to record all the 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. At the same time we use 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" (EG 120).


“They could not help but testify”
As highlighted by the very little information that could be gathered on their biographies and on the circumstances of death, none of them carried out striking feats or actions, but were "simply" giving witness of their faith in contexts of impoverished, degraded social contexts, where violence is the rule of life, the authority of the state was lacking or weakened by corruption and compromises and in the total lack of respect for life and for every human right. Once again these priests, men and women religious and lay persons, were aware of all this, they were often born in the same land where they died, so they were not naïve, but “when everything counselled silence, taking cover, not professing the faith, they could not – could not – help but testify” (Pope Francis, Budapest, 14 September, 2021). From Africa to America, from Asia to Europe, they shared daily life with their brothers and sisters, with its risks and fears, its violence and its deprivations, bringing in the small daily gestures Christian witness as a seed of hope.
Parish priests killed in their communities, in Africa and America, tortured, kidnapped by criminals in search of non-existent treasures or attracted by the mirage of easy redemptions or to silence uncomfortable voices, that urged not to passively submit to the regime of crime; priests engaged in social works, as in Haiti, killed to rob them of what was needed to run such activities, or even killed by those they were helping, as in France, or in Venezuela, where a religious was killed by thieves in the same school where he taught young people to build a future; nuns chased and killed cold-bloodedly by bandits in South Sudan. And still many lay persons, whose number is growing: catechists killed by armed clashes together with the communities who animated South Sudan; youths killed by snipers while trying to bring aid to displaced people fleeing clashes between the army and guerrillas in Myanmar; a lay missionary brutally murdered for stealing a cellphone in Peru; a young man killed because of a mine which exploded in the Central African Republic while traveling in a mission car; an indigenous catechist, activist for the respect of human rights in a non-violent way, killed in Mexico. All of them "could not, could not help but testify" with the strength of their life given out of love, fighting every day peacefully against arrogance, violence, war.
(SL) (Agenzia Fides 30/12/2021)


Share:

2024 - “Christus in martyre est”. The light of hope lit by the martyrs continues to illuminate the path of the Church

2023 - Jubilee 2025: the Pope establishes the Commission of the New Martyrs and Witnesses of the Faith, "ripe fruits of the Lord's vineyard"

2023 - The beatitude of martyrs, friends in Paradise

2023 - "She ended her life praying for everyone". Sister Maria Agustina Rivas, killed for being a peacemaker

2023 - Luisa Guidotti Mistrali: "I want to go on mission as a doctor, leave forever, remaining lay among the laity"

2023 - Sacrificing one's life to save the lives of others: the simple and strong faith of young Akash

2023 - "They remained in their place, close to the persecuted people, until their bloodshed". The story of the Jesuit martyrs of Chapotera

2022 - In grateful memory of the murdered missionaries. Witnesses, not "testimonial"

2022 - Missionaries killed in the year 2022

2022 - Recognized the heroic virtues of Luisa Guidotti Mistrali, killed in former Rhodesia

2022 - The testimony of Monsignor Jaramillo, "prophet and martyr of peace" is always alive and current

2022 - "We are not celebrating two dead, but two risen in Christ". Lebanese Christians celebrate the beatification of Capuchins Leonardo Melki and Thomas Saleh, missionaries and martyrs

2022 - Catholic priest and in charge of the migrant's house found dead in Tecate

2022 - Canonization of Charles de Foucauld: Archbishop of Algiers on the special spiritual path

2022 - Catechist Martyrs: stories that deserve to be recognized

2022 - March 24, Missionary Martyrs Day: "Voice of the Word"

2022 - The diocesan process for the beatification of the young Akash Bashir begins

2022 - Patriarch Sako: Canonization processes for Iraqi martyrs progressing

2022 - The Egyptian government increases the state subsidy to the families of the Coptic martyrs of Libya

2022 - The grateful memory of the Coptic Martyrs of Libya is renewed and grows, seven years after their massacre

2022 - Massacre of Jesuits: Film reconstructs what happened in 1989 and what is still happening today

2022 - A time of "spiritual awakening" in memory of the Coptic Martyrs of Libya, who died whispering the name of Jesus

2021 - MISSIONARIES KILLED IN THE YEAR 2021

2021 - Message and spiritual legacy of the monks of Tibhirine, 25 years after their tragic death

2021 - On January 22, the beatification of the four martyrs Rutilio Grande, Manuel Solórzano, Nelson Rutilio Lemus Chávez and Cosma Spessotto

2021 - A life at the service of the least of society: the lay volunteer Nadia de Munari killed in Nuevo Chimbote

2020 - MISSIONARIES KILLED IN 2020

2020 - On the 40th anniversary: CELAM commemorates the “selfless” service of the missionaries who died as martyrs in El Salvador

2020 - Bishops: "despite the pain, Catholics refuse to give in to fear"

2020 - A young priest ordained five months ago found dead

2020 - Salesian missionary Father Josef Thannhuber remembered, 100 years after his martyrdom in Brazil

2020 - "The value of martyrdom as an element of Christian life in El Salvador": towards the beatification of the missionary Cosma Spessotto

2020 - On the feast of San Romero the memory of all the missionaries killed in the name of Christ

2020 - A Day to remember the missionary martyrs

2020 - The body of the priest who went missing since January 16 has been found

2019 - MISSIONARIES KILLED IN 2019

2019 - Lasallian missionary brother James Alfred Miller beatified, "martyr for education"

2019 - The beatification of Father Cremonesi, martyr, on the eve of Mission Day in the Extraordinary Missionary Month

2019 - A parish priest in Cauca killed, a battleground between old and new armed gangs

2019 - The martyr Catechists of the Church of Mozambique towards beatification

2019 - The first liturgical feast of the blessed martyrs of La Rioja: an opportunity to learn and imitate their testimony of faith

2019 - The martyrs of La Rioja beatified: "they lived and died out of love"

2019 - The Bishops of the Cordoba region: "Let us joyfully live the grace of beatification"

2019 - Presentation of the logo for the beatification of the martyrs of La Rioja, "the joy of the whole people"

2018 - MISSIONARIES KILLED IN THE YEAR 2018

2018 - Special Fides: Young missionaries, witnesses of Christ giving their lives

2018 - Another priest murdered in Medellín

2018 - A priest killed in the English-speaking area, scene of clashes with separatists

2018 - La Rioja remembers its martyrs, the next blessed

2018 - Priest killed to rob his van

2018 - An impulse for mission and for vocations comes from the beatification of Sr. Leonella

2018 - Bishops ask after yet another priest is assassinated : ' why have we lost respect for life?'

2017 - Missionaries killed in 2017

2017 - The relics of Father Ramírez transfered, the Martyr of Armero, the next blessed

2017 - Pope Francis: “The Church is Church if she is a Church of martyrs”

2017 - Conclusion of the diocesan phase of the cause of beatification of the missionary martyr Fr. Ramin

2016 - PASTORAL CARE WORKERS KILLED IN 2016

2015 - PASTORAL CARE WORKERS KILLED IN 2015

2013 - PASTORAL CARE WORKERS KILLED IN 2013

2012 - PASTORAL CARE WORKERS KILLED IN 2012

2011 - THE NAMES OF PASTORAL WORKERS, BISHOPS, PRIESTS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND LAY CATHOLICS, KILLED IN THE YEAR 2011

2010 - THE NAMES OF PASTORAL WORKERS, PRIESTS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND LAY CATHOLICS KILLED DURING 2010

2009 - THE NAMES OF PASTORAL WORKERS, PRIESTS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND LAY CATHOLICS KILLED DURING 2009

2008 - THE NAMES OF PASTORAL WORKERS, PRIESTS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND LAY CATHOLICS KILLED DURING 2008

2007 - Dossier: The names of pastoral workers, priests, men and women religious and lay catholics Killed during 2007

2006 - NAMES OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES WHILE ON MISSION IN 2006

2005 - THE NAMES OF THOSE KILLED WHILE ON MISSION IN THE YEAR 2005