The Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of People and the FIDES news service published on December 30 its roster of missionaries who died violently while spreading the Gospel in 2006. According to the Congregation, 24 priests, professed religious, and lay people were murdered in various parts of the world. The document does “not intentionally use the word ‘martyrs’” so as not to anticipate in any way the judgement of the Vatican as to their eventual beatification or canonization as saints.
Africa, where both Islam and Christianity are making great leaps in gaining adherents, was where the majority of the murders of these Christian witnesses took place. In 2006, nine priests, one nun, and one lay volunteer were murdered even while they were conscious of the risks they took as evangelists. Kenya witnessed the murder of three priests this year, Nigeria saw two dead. Sister Leonella Sgorbati, a missionary nun of the Consolata order, was the only religious sister murdered in Africa; a laywoman missioner from Portugal was also murdered in Africa this year. The world total was one less than 2005.
In the Americas, there were 6 priests murdered, along with one religious sister and one lay missioner. Asia witnessed the murder of two priests, one religious sister and one lay missionary. Of these, the name of Father Andrea Santoro is notable: while the priest was praying in his chapel, he was murdered by a Muslim teenager in Turkey in advance of the Pope’s pastoral visit. To this list was added another religious, murdered in Papua New Guinea.
The Congregation also made note of the thousands of other Christians around the world who, while their names may be unrecorded, nevertheless gave their lives as testimonials to the Faith. Catholic and non-Catholic Christians have been assaulted and murdered in places like Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Sudan. Recently, for example, ten Catholic bishops who did not conform to the Chinese State-controlled People’s Church were arrested. Their whereabouts is currently unknown. Chinese priests and bishops have long suffered martyrdom and imprisonment under the Communist rule of the Peoples Republic of China.
In Paradisum deducant te angeli in tuo adventu
suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aetarnum habeas requiem
May the Angels lead you into Paradise and may the martyrs come to welcome [accept] you and lead you into the Holy City Jerusalem.
May the Choir of Angels welcome (accept)you, and where Lazarus is poor no longer, may you have eternal rest
Each of these believed that in a mysterious way, through His Incarnation, the Son of God has identified Himself with each person....
That whater you do for the least of My Brothers and Sisters, you did to Me....
That the meaning of life is found in the Law of the Gift:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for My sake, will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in His glory of the Father and of the holy angels"
[Luke 9. 23-26 RSV]
Posted by: Father Elijah | January 01, 2007 at 11:48 AM
One priest died at the hands of death squads in El Salvador (Antonio Riccardo Romero) as a consequence of his service to the poor, and one layman died at the hands of death squads in Guatemala serving to bring honesty and justice to that country(Johnny Morales). One nun (Karen Klimczak), described as a committed pacifist, died at a halfway house in Buffalo. This, with the posting about Dorothy Stang and her successor, is inspirational on this the World Day of Peace.
May their witness to the Gospel inspire my heart of stone.
Posted by: Daniel H. Conway | January 01, 2007 at 04:53 PM
Compounding the tragedy of the deaths or disappearances of these noble, courageous Catholics is the almost complete lack of coverage in the mainstream media of the killings, persecutions, and abuse of Christian rights that occur around the world. This is the same media that will do everything possible to headline and run screaming negative stories about the Church or Church personnel.
Posted by: Deacon John M. Bresnahan | January 01, 2007 at 08:48 PM
The MSM covered these deaths better than right wing blogdom. At least six of the names I knew from MSM coverage. The Catholic right wing does not cover Latin American death squad murders of Church workers on the routine. Much less the murder of an American pacifist nun in a Buffalo halfway house. (Coverage through NPR was excellent and still online.)
Sr. Klimczak gave final witness to Christ on Good Friday 2006. Fr. Romero and Mr. Morales died at the hands of increasingly active right wing death squads.
At least, Walmart is greeting shoppers with "Merry Christmas."
Posted by: Daniel H. Conway | January 01, 2007 at 09:32 PM