Vatican Commission: More than 1,600 Christians were killed by their faith in the last 25 years

In the last 25 years, 1,624 people worldwide were killed, according to an investigation carried out by a Vatican Commission and in which the Pontifical Foundation collaborated, it helps the needy church (ACN).

The Pontifical Foundation indicated in a note that this commission was made up of historians, theologians and experts. He pointed out that this work completes the work done “by indication of San Juan Pablo II for the Jubileo of the year 2000”.

“Pope Leo XIV has invited representatives of all Christian confessions to participate in a liturgy of the word in the basilica of St. Paul Extramuros of Rome, on Sunday, September 14, in homage to these ‘witnesses of faith,” said ACN.

The work of the commission began in July 2023, when Pope Francis asked them to “collect the testimonies of life, until the spill of blood, of these sisters and brothers our sisters so that their memory protrudes as a treasure that guard the Christian community.”

The Holy Father established that the investigation not only collected the cases of Catholic faithful, but that it was extended “to all Christian confessions. With all of them we have a great debt and we cannot forget them.”

“To prepare the list, help from episcopal conferences, religious institutes and various ecclesial realities were requested. It also resorted to verified news of the media,” ACN said.

The results

The investigation indicates that “1,624 cases of Christians killed between 2000 and 2025: 643 in sub -Saharan Africa, 357 in Asia and Oceania, 304 in America, 277 in the Middle East and the Maghreb, and 43 in Europe” have been identified and confirmed.

The number two of the commission and founder of the community of San Egidio, Andrea Riccardi said that in America “many witnesses of the faith have died at the hands of mafia, drug traffickers or because they prevented deforestation and exploitation of natural resources.”

“The presence of the Christian as an honest person, respectful of the law and the common good, bothers those who seek to promote criminal activities,” he said.

Riccardi said that the figure of Asia and Oceania includes more than 200 victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka. In the case of Africa, most died at the hands of jihadists or in ethnic-political base conflicts.

For his part, the president of the Commission and Secretary of the Dicasterio for the causes of the saints, Mons. Fabio Fabene, said that although “martyrdom has existed at all times of the Church,” perhaps now, “more than in the past, many renounced life not to betray the message of Christ.”

In that sense, Riccardi added that the report “and the ecumenical ceremony of September 14 show that our Church is a martyr church, and that these men and women have much to teach us.”

“We are contemporaries of these people we could have met in life. The Church lives the memory of the martyrs not as a moment of pain, but as hope for the future,” he said.

For her part, ACN executive president, Regina Lynch, stressed that “these data corroborate the experience of our work with local churches, where ACN supports communities under constant existential threats.”

“We are proud to accompany these Christians and grateful to learn from their testimony, which strengthens our faith and that of our benefactors every day,” he said.

Although the commission has decided not to publish the names “until it is prudent”, the cases of the seven Anglican religious of the Melanesian Brotherhood were mentioned in 2003 in the Solomon Islands, of the priest Ballofo Attacked in Yohannabad (Pakistan).

The 21 copper martyrs were also mentioned by the Islamic State in February 2015 in Libya and that have been included in the Roman martyrology by Pope Francis.

He also mentioned the murder of the four missioners of charity occurred in Adén (Yemen) in 2016; And the case of brother Lasallista Paul Mcauley, “found dead in the Peruvian Amazon in 2019, where he defended the indigenous and the environment,” ACN said.