Vatican says 29 church workers were killed in mission lands in 2003
- 30th December 2003

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Caught in situations of civil conflict, surprised during robberies or specifically targeted for death because of their work, at least 29 Catholic Church workers were killed in mission territories in 2003, the Vatican said.

Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, published its annual "martyrology" Dec. 30, listing Catholic clergy, religious and lay people who were killed as they tried to serve the church and their neighbors.
The most recent victim listed was Irish Archbishop Michael A. Courtney, the Vatican ambassador to Burundi.

The archbishop died Dec. 29 of gunshot wounds after the car he was riding in was fired on; the day after his death it was still unclear whether he was a specific target or simply got caught in the crossfire.

A 68-year-old German Claretian missionary in Cameroon, Father Anton Probst, was killed Dec. 25; returning to his room at the Akono novitiate after midnight Mass, he apparently surprised a group of thieves. He was bound, gagged and beaten to death.

Six of the 29 church workers who were killed died in Colombia.

Three of the Colombians died during robberies; another priest and a laywoman -- a health care worker -- were believed to be victims of rebels trying to gain control of an oil-rich part of the country.

The sixth Colombian victim, Father Jose Rubin Rodriguez, a parish priest, was kidnapped Nov. 14 and his body was found a week later.

Fides also listed six victims among church workers in Uganda, including three boys who were among a group of 41 students from a minor seminary kidnapped by rebels in May. Some of the boys still are believed to be in the hands of the rebels.

Fides also listed five victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two in El Salvador and one each in Kenya, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Pakistan, Brazil, Somalia, India and Guatemala.

Most of the church workers killed in mission territories were natives of the land where they died. However, Fides reported, three were Italian. In addition, Archbishop Courtney and another missionary were Irish, Father Probst was German, and the lay missionary killed in Equatorial Guinea during a police raid was a 22-year-old Spanish woman.

According to Fides, 25 church workers were killed in 2002 and 33 in 2001.

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