Vatican City, Dec 30, 2020 / 07:00 am
Twenty Catholic missionaries were killed across the world in 2020, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies said Wednesday.
Agenzia Fides reported Dec. 30 that those who lost their lives in service of the Church comprised eight priests, three religious women, one male religious, two seminarians, and six lay people.
As in previous years, the most deadly continents for Church workers were the Americas, where five priests and three lay people were killed this year, and Africa, where one priest, three female religious, one seminarian, and two lay people gave their lives.
The Vatican-based news agency, which was founded in 1927 and releases an annual list of murdered Church workers, explained that it used the term "missionary" to refer to "all the baptized engaged in the life of the Church who died in a violent way."