Fides report, 13 missionaries killed in 2024
On Vatican News, the report edited by the Pontifical Mission Societies the stories of the 8 priests and 5 lay people killed worldwide in 2024…
By Paolo Affatato – Vatican City (Vatican News)
Thirteen people who gave their lives up to the tribute of blood. Thirteen baptized, including priests, religious and laity, who were engaged in pastoral service in remote corners of the Earth. Thirteen people who often in silence, far from the spotlight, carried out with dedication and simplicity the apostolic work of proclaiming the Gospel, the gift of the sacraments and charity.
The Fides Report
As every year, the report of Fides Agency, organ of the Pontifical Missionary Works, presents the stories of missionaries and pastoral workers murdered around the world. The agency in the Dicastery for Evangelization, in its work of monitoring those who have given their lives while, by faith, engaged in service to the Church, considers a broader horizon and records all Catholics involved in some way in pastoral works and church activities who have died violently, even if not exactly “in hatred of the faith.” This is why the dossier prefers not to use the term “martyrs,” except in its etymological meaning of “witnesses,” so as not to enter into the judgment that the Church may eventually make on some of them through canonization processes.
The map of violence
According to data verified by Fides Agency, eight priests and five lay people were killed worldwide in 2024. Six of them lost their lives in Africa and five in America, two continents that, in recent years, “have alternated at the top of this tragic ranking,” the report explains. In detail, in Africa two priests were murdered in South Africa and one in Cameroon, a catechist and a volunteer in Burkina Faso, and a layman in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the American continent, one priest was killed in Colombia, one in Ecuador, another in Mexico. Lay people have also been shot dead: a parish worker in Brazil, a layman in Honduras. There is also Europe in the list of…