By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
In 2008, at least twenty Catholics were killed while in the service of Christ. The list includes Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul for Chaldeans (Iraq), 16 priests, 1 religious and 2 lay volunteers.
“In recent years our list has included not only the names of missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but all pastoral workers who died a violent death, sacrificing their lives,” said the report compiled by the Fides News Service for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
“We choose not to refer to these people as ‘martyrs’, since it is up to the Church to judge their possible merits, and also because of the scarcity of available information in most of cases, with regard to their life and even the circumstances of their death,” the report states.
The location with the most deaths this year was Asia where one Archbishop, six priests and one lay volunteer was killed.
“Particularly tragic was the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul for Chaldeans (Iraq), who was kidnapped after having celebrated the Way of the Cross, as he exited the Church of the Holy Spirit,” the report said. The 65 year old prelate was kidnapped on February 29 in an attack that left his driver and two bodyguards dead. His body was recovered two weeks later.
Salesian Father Johnson Moyalan, a 60 year old missionary from India was the first Catholic priest to be killed by Hindu extremists in the anti-Christian violence that has gripped the country in recent months. He was killed on July 1 in Nepal when gunmen broke into his house and shot him.
Elsewhere in Asia, 55 year-old Father Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI was praying the Rosary in a mission chapel in Tabawan (Philippines) on Jan. 15 when a gang of 10 gunmen broke in and attempted to kidnap him. When Father Roda protested, gunman opened fire and killed him. The incident happened only months after the priest received threats from dissident Islamic groups in the area.
Five Catholics were killed in the Americas last year, including Fr. Julio Cesar Mendoza Acuma, a 33 year-old Mexican priest who was killed on May 1. Fr. Acuma was found lying face down on the floor of his bathroom with his hands bound and his head and face covered in blood. Although found alive, he later died from the wounds in a Mexico City hospital.
The continent of Africa was the scene of five deaths last year, including a lay missionary named Boduin Ntamenya, 52, who was killed on December 15 in Rutshuru, Congo. The husband and father of six children, he worked for an Italian Catholic aid agency running schools in the war torn country. Ntamenya and a driver were visiting the schools in the region to ensure they survived recent fighting when four armed men opened fire on their vehicle. Ntamenya died on the way to the hospital while the driver survived wounds in the hand and the side.
Europe was the scene of two deaths, Fr. Otto Messmer and Fr. Victor Betancourt, whose lifeless bodies were found in their rooms in Moscow on Oct. 28. They were the victims of a double homicide committed by a psychologically disturbed man.
According to the Congregation, this tragic list remains incomplete. “To this provisional list . . . must be added the long list of many ‘unknown soldiers’ as it were of God’s great cause.”
Pope Benedict XVI urged the faithful to pray for these victims, calling it a “duty of gratitude” for the whole Church.
“To live in the belief in Jesus Christ, to live in truth and love, implies daily sacrifice, implies suffering,” the Pope said in November, 2008. “Christianity is not the easy road, it is, rather, a difficult climb, but one illuminated by the light of Christ and the great hope that is born of him.”
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