(Vatican Radio) 2014 was a grim year for the number of Church workers around the world killed by violence or the deadly Ebola virus. In its annual report, Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, states that 26 pastoral workers were killed – 3 more than in the previous year.
Tracey McClure reports..
The Fides report for years has centered on religious killed around the world but recently, it has focused on all church workers “who died violently.”
According to Fides, 17 priests, one religious brother, six religious women, a seminarian and a lay person were killed in 2014 – many during robberies characterized by particular “brutality and ferociousness” indicating they stemmed from intolerance and “economic and cultural poverty.”
For the sixth year running, the majority – 14 – were killed in the Americas , followed by Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe. Over the last ten years (2004-2013) 230 pastoral workers were killed, three of them bishops.
Of those murdered in the Americas, four priests and a seminarian were killed in Mexico; two other priests were murdered in the U.S., one in Canada, and five others and one seminarian in South America.
Many of those killed in Africa succumbed to Ebola, which has infected more than 20,000 people so far this year. As the Prior General of the Hospitallers of St. John of God, Fr. Jesus Etayo wrote, 18 of the order’s religious and lay workers at Catholic hospitals in Liberia and Sierra Leone “gave their lives for others like Christ.”
The report also recalls the unknown fate of three Assumptionist priests from Congo who were kidnapped in October 2012 and of Italian Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio who was abducted in Syria in 2013. Nothing is known either about the fate of Indian Jesuit Father Alexis Prem Kumar, kidnapped in June 2014 in Herat. He was the director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Afghanistan.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) 2014 was a grim year for the number of Church workers around the world killed by violence or the deadly Ebola virus. In its annual report, Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, states that 26 pastoral workers were killed – 3 more than in the previous year.…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his “deep sadness” about the murder of Mexican priest, Father Gregorio López Gorostieta, who was murdered after preaching a sermon against organized crime, an act the Pope calld “unjustifiable violence”.
In a telegram sent on the Holy Father’s behalf to Bishop Maximino Martinez Miranda, The Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin conveyed the Pope’s condolences to the entire ecclesial community of the Diocese of Altamirano.
The telegram expressed the Pope’s “firm condemnation” of all such violence, and added the Holy Father urges all priests, and other missionaries, to continue in their mission despite the difficulties encountered, following the example of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his “deep sadness” about the murder of Mexican priest, Father Gregorio López Gorostieta, who was murdered after preaching a sermon against organized crime, an act the Pope calld “unjustifiable violence”. In a telegram sent on the Holy Father’s behalf to Bishop Maximino Martinez Miranda, The Secretary of State Cardinal…
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Vatican City, 30 December 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father’s universal prayer intention for January 2015 is: “That those from diverse religious traditions and all people of good will may work together for peace”. His intention for evangelisation is: “That in this year dedicated to consecrated life, religious men and women may rediscover the joy of following Christ and strive to serve the poor with zeal”….