Seventeen missionaries and pastoral workers killed in 2025

Source: Fides

As the Jubilee of Hope draws to a close, Fides publishes its annual report on Catholic missionaries and pastoral workers who were violently killed worldwide in the past 365 days.

The news about the lives and circumstances of these individuals' violent deaths offers a glimpse into everyday life in contexts often marked by violence, misery, and a lack of justice. These are often witnesses and missionaries who voluntarily offered their lives to Christ until the very end.

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.

From 2000 to 2025, a total of 626 missionaries and pastoral workers were killed.

The annual list issued by Fides, does not refer only to missionaries and pastoral workers "ad gentes" in the strict sense, but uses the term "missionary" in a broader context, encompassing all Catholics who were involved in some way in pastoral works and ecclesial activities and who died violently, even if they did not die expressly "in hatred of the faith".

For this reason, we prefer not to use the term "martyrs", if not in its etymological meaning of "witness", in order not to enter into the question of the judgment that the Church might eventually deliver upon some of them. Likewise, we use the term "missionary" for all the baptized, in the awareness that "in virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples (cf. Mt 28:19). All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization." (Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhoratation Evangelii gaudium, - 120).

AFRICA

Nigeria

Ten missionaries were killed in Africa: six priests, two seminarians, and two catechists NB. The report on missionaries killed in 2024 did not include the name of Father Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo, a priest and pharmacist, killed near Ihiala, Nigeria, on the evening of December 26, 2024. Burkina Faso (2)

- Mathias Zongo and Christian Tientga, two catechists who were travelling by motorbike with two other catechists were killed on January 25. The four pastoral workers of the parish of Ouakara were allegedly attacked by a group of armed men while they were near the town of Bondokuy.Nigeria (5)

- Father Sylvester Okechukwu, diocesan priest, parish priest of St. Mary Tachira Church, Kaura Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria. According to a statement from the Diocese of Kafanchan, Father Okechukwu was kidnapped in his residence in Tachira on March 4, 2025, between 9.15pm and 9.40pm. His lifeless body was found on March 5.

- Andrew Peter, a 21-year-old seminarian, was murdered by kidnappers who had abducted him along with Fr Philip Ekweli from the rectory of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Iviukhua-Agenebode, Etsako East County, Edo State: the gunmen attacked both the rectory and the church. The two were taken to nearby forests. Father Ekweli was released by the kidnappers on March 13. The news of the seminarian's murder was released by the Diocese of Auchi on 17 March.

- Father Godfrey Chukwuma Oparaekwe, parish priest of St Ambrose Church in Ubakala (Umuahia South LGA), in Abia State (southern Nigeria), was killed while attempting to mediate a family dispute on the evening of June 17.

- Father Matthew Eya, parish priest of St Charles Church in Eha-Ndiagu (Nigeria), was shot on the evening of September 19 along the Eha-Alumonah-Eha-Ndiagu road, in the local government area of Nsukka, in Enugu State, southeastern Nigeria.

- Emmanuel Alabi, a seminarian, lost his life due to circumstances related to his kidnapping. Abducted on July 10 in the attack on the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in Ivianokpodi, belonging to the diocese of Auchi, in Edo State, the young man died from injuries sustained during his capture. The news of Emmanuel Alabi's tragic death was confirmed by the Diocese of Auchi on 5 November.

Kenya (1)

- Father Alloyce Cheruiyot Bett was shot dead in the Tot area of the Kerio Valley, in the Elgeyo Marakwet County, in the Western Highlands of Kenya. The murder occurred on May 22, at the end of the Holy Mass in the small Christian community in the village of Kakbiken, when several gunmen fired shots, one of which hit Father Bett in the neck, killing him instantly

Sierra Leone (1)

- Father Augustine Dauda Amadu was killed between 2 and 3 am on the night of August 29-30 in his home in the Burma 3 neighbourhood on the outskirts of Kenema, Sierra Leone.

Sudan (1)

- Father Luka Jomo, parish priest in the besieged city of El Fasher, in Darfur (western Sudan), killed by a stray bullet that took his life and that of two other young people.

AMERICA

Four missionaries were killed in America: two priests and two nuns

Haiti (2)

- Evanette Onezaire and Jeanne Voltaire, two nuns who belonged to the Little Sisters of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, were murdered by armed gangs in Mirebalais, about fifty kilometers northeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Mexico (1)

Father Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada, who disappeared on October 4 in Cocula, Guerrero State, Mexico, was found murdered on October 6 between the towns of Zumpango and Mezcala.

United States (1)

- Father Arul Carasala, parish priest of Saints Peter and Paul Church in Seneca, a city in northeastern Kansas (USA), was shot and killed on April 3 by a man while he was in his rectory.

ASIA

Two missionaries were killed in Asia: one priest and one layperson

Myanmar (1)

- Father Donald Martin, a 44-year-old diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Mandalay, is the first Burmese Catholic priest killed in the civil conflict that is bloodying the country. His lifeless body, mutilated and disfigured by stab wounds, was found on February 14 at 6pm, by parishioners in the grounds of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he was the parish priest.

Philippines (1)

- Mark Christian Malaca, a teacher at St. Stephen Academy, a Catholic school in the city of Laur. Malaca, 39, was shot dead on November 4 by unknown assailants in the village of San Juan, where he lived.

EUROPE

One priest killed in Europe

Poland (1)

- Father Grzegorz Dymek, 58, was found strangled in the rectory on February 13. The priest had been serving in the parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Klobuck, southern Poland, (15 km southwest of Czestochowa) since its foundation in 1998.

Read the full dossier, attached to this article:
www.fides.org/en/news/77199-MISSIONARIES_AND_PASTORAL_WORKERS_KILLED_IN_2025