26 people involved in missionary work killed in 2005
Twenty-six people involved in missionary work, including a bishop, were murdered last year, almost twice as many as in 2004.
Fides, the Vatican’s missionary news agency, said many of the murders were robbery attempts or other assaults that were often carried out in poor areas.
The victims included one bishop, 20 priests, two members of religious orders, two nuns and one lay missionary, Fides said.
The highest number of casualties per country occurred in Colombia, where four priests and one nun were killed.
Eight people were killed in Africa, including 76-year-old Bishop Luigi Locati, who was shot to death in Kenya in July.
The list also included two priests killed in Europe – one in Brussels and one in Moscow – who worked with immigrants and homeless people.
Fides said its list included “not only missionaries in the strict sense of the word, but all church staff who have been killed in a violent way or who have sacrificed their lives aware of the risks they were running".
