The Extraordinary Missionary Month, celebrated by the Church in October 2019, was an opportunity to rediscover many witnesses of the Faith who spent their lives for the Gospel in very diverse contexts and situations in their local Churches. Like every year, Fides News Agency gathered information about the missionaries killed during the past year. For some time now, this annual list does not only concern missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but instead tries to record the memory of all baptized persons committed to the life of the Church who died in a violent way, not only because of “hatred for the Faith.”
According to the data collected, twenty-nine missionaries were killed throughout the world in 2019: 18 priests, 1 permanent deacon, 2 religious who were not priests, 2 nuns and 6 lay people.
After eight consecutive years in which the Americas sadly held first place in the number of missionaries killed, two years ago Africa took over top place in this tragic ranking.
While in the past, killings were primarily concentrated in individual countries or geographical areas, the phenomenon appears to have become more generalized and widespread since 2019, giving rise to what might be called the “globalization of violence.”