13 missionaries and pastoral workers were killed in 2024

Fides Agency, information organ of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), has detailed the circumstances of the violent death in 2024 of 13 missionaries and pastoral agents, of whom eight were priests and five lay people, all men.

In your annual reportit is highlighted that the list offered “is not limited exclusively to missionaries to the nations in the strict sense” but includes “all Catholics involved in pastoral works and ecclesiastical activities who have met death violently, even if it has not always been ‘out of hatred of the faith’.”

In this sense, it is emphasized that the term “martyrs” is not used except in its etymological sense of “witnesses”, without prejudice to what the Catholic Church may establish on each of the particular cases.

Of the 13, six were in Africa, 5 in America and 2 in Europe at the time of their deaths.

As stated in the Fides report, “the circumstances of their deaths reveal that they were not murdered for carrying out particularly striking works or commitments, but for bearing witness to their faith in the daily routine of daily life.”

“His pastoral work was carried out not only in contexts marked by violence and conflict, but also in apparently calmer settings,” it is added.

Of the six murders recorded in Africa, two took place in Burkina Faso. Volunteer François Kabore, who led a prayer group in a local community, died during an assault by a jihadist group in February.

In April, catechist Edouard Yougbare was kidnapped and murdered by an armed group when he went to look for his donkey.

In Cameroon, the Togolese priest Christophe Komla Badjougou was shot dead during a street robbery outside the house of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the capital, Yaoundé.

Edmond Bahati Monja, coordinator of Radio Maria in Goma (Democratic Republic of the Congo) was shot dead near his home, a fact that may be related to his investigations into the violence unleashed by various armed groups in the region.

Two priests were murdered in less than a month in South Africa. The first was Fr. William Bunda, of Zambian origin and member of the St. Patrick’s Foreign Missions Society, who was shot when he was preparing to celebrate mass in the Tzaneen Cathedral.

The second was Father Paul Tatum, a religious of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was shot in the back of the head while he was in his car in Pretoria.

On the American continent, Colombia experienced the murder of a parish priest, Father Ramón Arturo Montejo, during a robbery. In Ecuador, the body of Father Fabián Enrique Arcos was found four days after his disappearance was reported. It is suspected that he was the victim of a robbery, according to official investigations.

In Honduras, the coordinator of the social ministry of the Diocese of Trujillo, Juan Antonio López, married and with two daughters, was shot dead after participating in a Mass, 24 hours after denouncing in a press conference links between local politicians and the racketeering. Pope Francis denounced this murder.

Last October in Mexico, the violent death of Father Marcelo Pérez, parish priest in San Cristóbal de las Casas, who was shot after celebrating the Eucharist by two hitmen on a motorcycle, was lamented.

In Brazil, Steve Maguerith Chaves, a married layman, father of a six-year-old girl who collaborated with the parish of Our Lady of the Head, was murdered. He was attacked when he was on his way to Mass. Although he tried to escape, he was hit by a bullet in the head.

The Fides report confirms the death of two more priests in Europe. These are the Spanish Franciscan friar Juan Antonio Llorente, who died after an attack with blows in the Monastery of Gilet, and the Polish Father Lech Lachowicz, who died after seven days of agony after being attacked with an ax with the aim of robbing him at his home. parochial.

In the last 25 years, 608 missionaries and pastoral workers have been murdered.