Vatican City – According to information in our possession, during 2013, 22 pastoral care workers were killed worldwide (mostly priests), almost double compared to 13 who were killed in 2012. On the night of December 31, 2013 and January 1, 2014, Fr. Eric Freed, a priest in Eureka, California was killed: The police are investigating to determine the reasons of such murder.

For the fifth consecutive year, the place most affected, with an extremely elevated number of pastoral care workers killed is LATIN AMERICA, especially in Colombia.

The pastoral care workers who died violently in 2013 are:19 priests, 1 religious sister, 2 lay persons. In America: 15 priests (7 in Colombia, 4 in Mexico, 1 in Brazi, 1 in Venezuela, 1 in Panama, 1 in Haiti) were killed; in Africa: 1 priest was killed in Tanzania, 1 religious sister in Madagascar, 1 lay person in Nigeria were killed; in Asia 1 priest in in India and 1 in Syria were killed; in the Philippines 1 lay person was killed; in Europe a priest was killed in Italy.

As it has been for some time, Fides’ list does not only include missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but all pastoral care workers who died violent deaths. We do not propose to use the term “martyrs”, if not in its etymological meaning of “witnesses” since it is up to the Church to judge their possible merits and also because of the scarsity of available information in most cases, with regard to their life and even the circumstances of their death.

In 2013 the beatification process of the six Italian missionary Sisters of the Poor of Bergamo was opened, who died in Congo in 1995 after having contracted the Ebola virus in order not to leave the population without health care, defined as “martyrs of love”. Instead the diocesan phase of the beatification process of Luisa Mistrali Guidotti, a member of the Women’s Medical Missionary Association was completed, who was killed in 1979 in the then Rhodesia, while accompanying a pregnant woman at risk in labor to the hospital. The cause of beatification of Father Mario Vergara, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), and the lay catechist Isidore Ngei Ko Lat, killed in hatred of faith in Myanmar in 1950 was opened. On April 25 the beatification of Father Pino Puglisi was celebrated: “his gentleness and his unceasing missionary work, collided with a logic of life opposed to faith, that of the mafia, that hindered his pastoral action with intimidation, threats and beatings, to the point of killing him, in hatred of faith” wrote the Bishops of Sicily.

There is still much concern regarding the fate of many other pastoral care workers who have been kidnapped or disappeared, of whom there has been no news, such as the three Congolese Augustinian priests of the Assumption, kidnapped in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo in October 2012, and a Colombian priest who has disappeared for months. While the terrible conflict that has plunged Syria in blood for three years does not spare the Christians: we have not had any news of the Italian Jesuit Fr. Paul Dall’Oglio for a long time, of the two metropolitan Bishops of Aleppo – the Greek Orthodox Boulos al-Yazigi and the Syrian Orthodox Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, of the Orthodox nuns of the monastery of Santa Tecla. Fr. Georges Vandenbeusch, the French “Fidei Donum” priest has just been released, who had been kidnapped on November 13 in his parish home in Nguetchewe, Cameroon.

The majority of the pastoral care workers in 2013 were killed in atempted robbery, and in some cases violently attacked, a sign of the climate of moral decline, economic and cultural poverty, which generates violence and disregard for human life. They all lived in these human and social contexts, carrying out the mission of proclaiming the Gospel message without making sensational acts, but by witnessing their faith in the humility of daily life.

As pointed out by the Holy Father, “in 2,000 years, a vast host of men and women have sacrificed their lives to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and his Gospel” (Angelus, 23 June 2013).

The provisional list compiled annually by Fides, must therefore be added to the long list of many of whom there may never be news, who in every corner of the world suffer and even pay with their lives for their faith in Christ: “let us think about our many Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution for their faith. There are so many. Perhaps more now than in past centuries. Jesus is with them. We too are united to them with our prayers and our love; we admire their courage and their witness. They are our brothers and sisters who, in many parts of the world, are suffering for their faithfulness to Jesus Christ” (Pope Francis, Angelus, 17 November 2013).

 

 OVERVIEW OF CONTINENTS

AMERICA   

In America 6 priests were killed: 7 in Colombia; 4 in Mexico; 1 in Brazil; 1 in Venezuela; 1 in Panama; 1 in Haiti.

In Colombia Don José Francisco Vélez Echeverri, Don José Ancizar Mejia Palomino, Don Luis Bernardo Echeverri e Don Héctor Fabio Cabrera were killed in their home, most likely due to an attempted robbery. Instead Don Luis Alfredo Suárez Salazar was killed during a gunfire. The lifeless bodies of Don José Antonio Bayona Valle and of Don Néstor Darío Buendía Martínez, who had been missing for days were found in an isolated area.

In Mexico Don José Flores Preciado was killed after being beaten by unknown persons, who had been discovered by the priest while they were committing theft in church where the priest celebrated Mass; Don Ignacio Cortez Alvarez, Don Hipólito Villalobos Lima e don Nicolás De la Cruz Martínez were killed in their home.

In Brazil Father Elvis Marcelino De Lima was killed by two young boys during a robbery

In Venezuela Don José Ramón Mendoza was killed while he was in his car by a gang of  bandits.

In Panama Don Anibal Gomez was killed most likely due to a robbery, as the priest had bruises, had been tied, and he died because of a large stab wound.

In Haiti Father Richard E. Joyal  was killed while he was leaving a bank by two men on a motorbike.

 

AFRICA

In Africa 1 priest in Tanzania, 1 religious sister in Madagascar, 1 lay person in Nigeria were killed.

In Tanzania Don Evarist Mushi was shot to death by a person on a motorbike while he was going to celebrate mass.

In Madagascar Sister Marie Emmanuel Helesbeux was killed, she was first hit with a stick and then strangled by three people, it seems they owned the victim money.

In Nigeria the lay missionary Afra Martinelli was found in her room, severely wounded in the neck with a machete, most likely due to an attempted theft.

 

ASIA

In Asia 3 pastoral care workers: 1 priest in India and 1 in Siria; 1 lay person in the Philippines.

In India Don Kochupuryil J. Thomas was killed by unknown persons in the Seminary where he was a Rector.

In Siria Father François Murad was murdered in the convent of the  Custody of the Holy Land where he found refuge after the start of the civil war.

In the Philippines the lay Catholic Dexter Condez was killed with eight shots, he was committed in defending the rights and prerogatives of the indigenous group Ati.

 

EUROPE

In Europe 1 priest was killed.

In Italy Don Michele Di Stefano was killed with a stick in his bed, at the rectory where he lived alone.