Vatican News Agency FIDES says 24 church workers died violently in 2006

(03 Jan. 2007) : FIDES, the news agency of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, reported that during 2006, 24 Catholic Church personnel, including priests, religious and lay workers were killed as they worked in the mission lands. The agency’s statement said that the Church workers were often the victims of aggression, robbery marked by violence, human degradation and poverty, which these peacemakers tried to alleviate with their work. While not declaring the deceased to be martyrs in the formal sense of that recognized by the Church for being killed out of hatred of the faith, Fides hoped that people would remember and pray for them. They should be remembered for the price they paid "for the growth of the church in every part of the world" and for their contributions to evangelization and human development, it said.