Dead in the service of Christ

Zenit reports a list of missionaries killed in 2004

• Brother Ignacio García Alonso, headmaster of the College of the Brothers of Christian Schools in Burkina Faso, was killed with a machete in his office Feb. 6.
• Father César Darío Peña Garcia, 43, parish priest at Raudal in Valdivia, Colombia, was kidnapped March 16 by rebels. On July 30 it was announced that he had been killed.
• Comboni Father Luciano Fulvi, 76, was found stabbed to death March 31 in his room at the Catholic Mission of Layibi in Uganda.
• Javed Anjum, a 19-year-old Catholic Pakistani student, died May 2 from 26 stab wounds inflicted by a teacher and group of students that had tried to force him to convert to Islam.
• Samuel Masih, a Catholic Pakistani youth accused of blasphemy and arrested in August 2003, died May 28 from injuries suffered in prison at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist prison guards.
• Father Ramon Navarrete Islas, 56, was found dead July 6 with numerous stab wounds in the house next to the church he was serving at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Police said the motive was robbery.
• Servite Father Faustino Gazziero, 69, on July 24 at the end of evening Mass in the cathedral of Santiago, Chile, was stabbed to death by a crazed young man as the priest was returning to the sacristy.
• Father Eusebio Manuel Sazo Urbina, 45, parish priest at the Divine Savior of the World Church outside Guatemala City was killed July 31 on a sick call by a gunman apparently trying to steal his cell phone.
• Nasir Masih, 26, a Pakistani layman, was abducted from his home Aug. 16 by a group of fundamentalist Muslims who accused him of stealing. Three days later the police said he had died in prison. His body showed numerous wounds and bruises.
• Father Job Chittilappilly, 71, was found dead with numerous stab wounds Aug. 28 in his home next to the church of Our Lady of Grace in the village of Thuruthiparambu, India. He had been warned to stop "proselytizing" and was murdered while reciting the rosary before Mass.
• Father Gerard Fitzsimons, 63, was found dead Oct. 2 at his home next to the Church of St. Mary and St. Joseph in Colesberg, South Africa.
• Father Macrino Nájera Cisneros, 42, parish priest at Jilotlan, Mexico, was slain Oct. 18 during a reception following a first-Communion Mass. He was defending a 15-year-old girl from a molester who left the reception and returned to shoot the priest and two other people dead and wound another girl.
• Father Gerard Nzeyimana, 65, episcopal vicar of the Diocese of Bururi, Burundi, was killed Oct. 19 while traveling with other people in a car. Gunmen stopped the car and robbed the occupants. After carefully examining the priest's ID, they shot him in the head. Father Nzeyimana had been known for promoting peace and denouncing violence against civilians.
• Father John Hannon, 65, a Missionary of the Society of African Missions, was found dead Nov. 25 at St. Barnaba Parish near Nairobi, Kenya. Police said the motive was robbery.
• Father Kazimir Viseticki, 66, was killed during the night of Nov. 17 in the house by the church where he was pastor, St. Roko in northern Bosnia Herzegovina. Police said the motive was robbery.
• Father Javier Francisco Montoya, 45, from the Diocese of Istmina-Tado, was taken hostage by Columbian rebels on Dec. 8. On Dec. 24 his bishop was told the priest had been executed and buried.
• Sister Christiane Philippon, 58, regional superior of the Congregation of Notre Dame des Apôtres, was shot dead by bandits early Dec. 26 in Chad, on the road from Ba Hilli to N'Djamena. Three other women religious were wounded.

The price of working for the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be high, but the rewards are infinitely greater.

May the angels lead you into paradise.
May the martyrs receive you at your coming
and take you to Jerusalem the holy city.