Vatican news agency reports 26 missionaries murdered in 2005

Published: 2006-01-03

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although many of them were killed during robbery attempts, the 26 Catholic missionaries murdered in 2005 each died spreading the Gospel and serving the poor and victims of violence, a Vatican news agency said. Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, published its annual list of murdered church personnel Dec. 30. The agency said its tally, twice as many as were killed in 2004, showed that one bishop, 20 priests, two religious brothers, two nuns and one lay missionary died violently in 2005. In the 2005 list, Fides included a priest killed in Russia and one killed in Belgium. Although they were not working in mission territories, the Belgian, Father Robert De Leener, was included because of his work with immigrants; Slovakian Father Jan Hermanovski was included because of his work with the homeless in Russia. "The list includes not only missionaries in the strict sense, but all church personnel killed in a violent way or who sacrificed their lives aware of the risks they ran by not abandoning their commitment," the agency said.

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