MISSIONARIES AND PASTORAL WORKERS KILLED IN 2025

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Even the hope of missionaries and pastoral workers who are killed is “a hope filled with immortality because their witness lives on as a prophecy of the victory of good over evil.”
This is one of the phrases of Pope Leo XIV chosen to introduce the usual report published at the end of the year by Fides on Catholic missionaries and pastoral workers killed around the world. It suggests in a simple way the source of Christian hope, the pledge of a life that does not die.
The news about the lives and circumstances of their deaths shows once again this year that the missionaries killed were not in the spotlight for spectacular deeds. They bore witness to Christ in their everyday life, even in contexts marked by violence and conflict.

Some data

According to data verified by Fides, 17 missionaries were killed worldwide in 2025, including priests, women religious, seminarians, and lay people.

The breakdown by continent shows that the highest number of pastoral workers killed in 2025 was in Africa, where ten missionaries (six priests, two seminarians, and two catechists) were murdered. Four missionaries were killed in the Americas (two priests and two nuns), and two in Asia (one priest and one layperson). One priest was killed in Europe.

In recent years, Africa and America have alternated at the top of this tragic ranking.

In detail, among the 10 pastoral workers killed in Africa, five lost their lives in Nigeria, two in Burkina Faso, one in Sierra Leone, one in Kenya and one in Sudan.
Among the four missionaries killed in America, two nuns were murdered in Haiti, one priest was killed in Mexico and another priest of Indian origin was killed in the United States.
Of the two priests killed in Asia, one was brutally murdered in Myanmar and the other was killed in the Philippines.
The only priest killed in Europe lost his life in Poland.

Among the pastoral workers killed in 2025 is the young Nigerian seminarian Emmanuel Alabi, who died during a forced march imposed on him by his captors, who had attacked the minor seminary in Ivianokpodi and, after wounding him, they had kidnapped him along with two of his companions. Sister Evanette Onezaire and Sister Jeanne Voltaire were also murdered by members of one of the armed gangs that hold Haiti in their grip; there is also Donald Martin, the first Burmese Catholic priest killed in the civil conflict that is bloodying Myanmar, whose lifeless body, mutilated and disfigured, was found by some parishioners in the parish complex.

From 2000 to 2025, 626 Catholic missionaries were killed worldwide.

«These brothers and sisters may also seem to be failures, but today we see that it is not the case. Now as then, in fact, the seed of their sacrifices, which seems to die, germinates and bears fruit, because God continues to work miracles, through them, changing hearts and saving men and women» (Pope Francis, December 26, 2023, liturgical feast of St Stephen Protomartyr).
(Agenzia Fides, 30/12/2025)

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