Courageous witnesses to the faith: 17 missionaries were murdered in 2025

Dec 30, 2025 / 15:01 pm

A total of 17 missionaries were killed worldwide during 2025, the Jubilee Year of Hope. With these figures, the number of missionaries and pastoral workers who have lost their lives by violence since the year 2000 to the present day has risen to 626.

On Dec. 30, Fides News Agency published its annual report, which documents the murders of missionaries and all Catholic Christians involved in pastoral activity who have died by violence.

The report includes priests, nuns, seminarians, and laypeople who died because of their faith in contexts often marked by violence, extreme poverty, and injustice. In many cases, they were true witnesses to the Gospel who remained faithful to their mission until the end, freely offering their lives to Christ.

Africa is once again the hardest-hit continent, with 10 missionaries murdered: six priests, two seminarians, and two catechists. Four deaths were recorded in the Americas — two priests and two nuns — while in Asia, a priest and a layperson were killed. In Europe, the report includes the murder of one priest.

Killed for their faith in Africa

In Burkina Faso, catechists Mathias Zongo and Christian Tientga were murdered, attacked by a group of armed men who were traveling on a motorcycle near the town of Bondokuy.

In Nigeria, diocesan priest Sylvester Okechukwu, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Tachira, was killed in the Kaura local government area. Also in Nigeria, 21-year-old seminarian Andrew Peter died at the hands of armed men who attacked both the rectory and the church.

Father Godfrey Chukwuma Oparaekwe, parish priest at St. Ambrose Church in Ubakala, was murdered in June while trying to mediate a family dispute. Also killed were Father Matthew Eya, who was shot on the night of Sept. 19, and the young seminarian Emmanuel Alabi, who died from injuries sustained during his abduction.

In Kenya, Father Allois Cheruiyot Bett was shot and killed after armed men opened fire and one of the bullets struck him in the neck, causing instant death. In Sierra Leone, Father Augustine Dauda Amadu was murdered in his home, and Father Luka Jomo, a parish priest, was killed by shrapnel from an artillery shell along with two young men.

The report also included Father Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo, a priest and pharmacist who was murdered near Ihiala, Nigeria, on the night of Dec. 26, 2024, but whose murder was not included in the report of that year.

Haiti, Mexico, and the United States

In the Americas, in Haiti, Sisters Evanette Onezaire and Jeanne Voltaire, members of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, were murdered on March 31 in Mirebalais, in central Haiti, by members of armed gangs.

In Mexico, Father Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada — whose disappearance had been reported on Oct. 4 in Cocula, in Guerrero state — was found dead on Oct. 6 between the towns of Zumpango and Mezcala.

Father Arul Carasala, parish priest at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Seneca, a town in northeastern Kansas, was shot and killed by a man in his rectory on April 3.

Tortured and murdered for Christ in Asia

In Myanmar, 44-year-old diocesan priest Donald Martin Ye Naing Win lost his life because of his faith, becoming the first Burmese Catholic priest murdered in the civil conflict that is ravaging the country. His lifeless body, mutilated and disfigured with stab wounds, was found on Feb. 14 by some parishioners on the grounds of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, where he served as parish priest.

In the Philippines, Mark Christian Malaca, a 39-year-old teacher at St. Stephen Academy in the city of Laur, was shot and killed on Nov. 4 by unknown assailants in the town of San Juan, where he resided.

Priest murdered in Poland

In Europe, Fides News Agency reported the murder of Father Grzegorz Dymek, a 58-year-old priest who was found strangled in the rectory of his parish in Poland on Feb. 13. The priest had served in Our Lady of Fatima Parish since its founding in 1998.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.