Remember Their Names

A memorial for 2025

Seventeen people went to serve their neighbors and did not come home.

Priests, sisters, seminarians, catechists, and a schoolteacher — most of them local to the places they served. This page remembers them by name, explains the risks they lived with, and points to credible ways to help.

Read their names Ways to help

The issue

Every year, some of the people who hold church communities together are killed — not only foreign missionaries, but local priests, sisters, and lay volunteers who stay when conditions become dangerous.

They run schools and clinics, mediate disputes, visit the displaced, and travel roads that others avoid. That visibility and presence can make them targets for kidnapping gangs, armed groups, and robbers, and it leaves them exposed wherever conflict or lawlessness has weakened ordinary protection.

The motives differ from case to case. Some deaths are linked to kidnapping for ransom, some to robbery, some to war, and some to people who publicly spoke against crime or corruption. Remembering these people honestly means holding both truths: they died while serving, and the reasons are not always the same.

What the sources report

Each figure below comes from a different organization with its own method. They measure different things and should not be added together or compared directly.

Missionary & pastoral worker deaths Agenzia Fides, 2025 report

Catholic missionaries and pastoral workers killed worldwide in 2025
17
Source: Agenzia Fides, 30 Dec 2025
Of those, killed in Africa — six priests, two seminarians, two catechists
10
Source: Agenzia Fides, 30 Dec 2025
Of those in Africa, killed in Nigeria
5
Source: Agenzia Fides, 30 Dec 2025
Catholic missionaries and pastoral workers killed worldwide, 2000–2025
626
Source: Fides 2025 dossier (PDF)

How Fides counts: it uses “missionary” broadly, for any Catholic involved in pastoral or church activity who died violently — even if they did not die expressly “in hatred of the faith.” It is not a count of people proven to have been killed for their beliefs. Read the methodology (PDF)

Broader context — not a missionary count Open Doors & USCIRF

Christians killed for their faith in the Open Doors 2026 World Watch List reporting period — a broad estimate of Christian persecution
4,849
Source: Open Doors US, World Watch List trends
Countries USCIRF recommends for designation as “Countries of Particular Concern” in its 2026 report — Nigeria among them
18
Source: USCIRF 2026 Recommendations

Emmanuel Alabi

Seminarian · Diocese of Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria

Emmanuel Alabi was a young Nigerian seminarian studying at the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in Ivianokpodi.

On the night of 10 July 2025, armed bandits attacked the seminary. Emmanuel was wounded in the attack and taken along with two other seminarians, Japhet Jesse and Joshua Aleobua.

According to the diocesan chancellor, speaking to Fides and relaying the account of a released seminarian, Emmanuel became exhausted during the forced march his captors imposed and could not continue. He was left behind, and when the kidnappers returned the next day, he had died.

His companions both came home. His diocese announced his death months later, describing a seminarian “who lost his life during the kidnapping.”

Every detail above is drawn from the Fides 2025 report and its accompanying dossier (PDF).

The names

All seventeen people listed in the Fides 2025 report. Circumstances vary: some were targeted, some were killed in robberies, one by a stray bullet in a besieged city.

Showing all 17 names

  1. Mathias Zongo

    Catechist · Burkina Faso

    Killed 25 January near Bondokuy while travelling with fellow catechists of Ouakara parish.

  2. Christian Tientga

    Catechist · Burkina Faso

    Killed in the same attack on 25 January. Two other catechists escaped into the forest.

  3. Grzegorz Dymek

    Priest · Poland

    Found dead 13 February in the rectory of the parish in Kłobuck he had served since 1998.

  4. Donald Martin

    Priest · Myanmar

    Found dead 14 February in his parish grounds in Sagaing region. He had been aiding displaced people.

  5. Andrew Peter

    Seminarian, 21 · Nigeria

    Abducted 3 March from a rectory in Edo State; his death was announced by the Diocese of Auchi on 17 March.

  6. Sylvester Okechukwu

    Priest · Nigeria

    Kidnapped from his residence in Tachira, Kaduna State, on 4 March; found dead the next day.

  7. Evanette Onezaire

    Religious sister · Haiti

    Killed 31 March by armed gangs in Mirebalais, where she worked at a school.

  8. Jeanne Voltaire

    Religious sister · Haiti

    Killed with Sister Evanette on 31 March after sheltering in a house during the attacks.

  9. Arul Carasala

    Priest · United States

    Shot 3 April in his rectory in Seneca, Kansas. Ordained in India, he had served in Kansas since 2004.

  10. Alloyce Cheruiyot Bett

    Priest · Kenya

    Shot 22 May at the end of Mass in the village of Kakbiken, Kerio Valley.

  11. Luka Jomo

    Priest · Sudan

    Killed 13 June by a stray bullet in the besieged city of El Fasher, Darfur.

  12. Godfrey Chukwuma Oparaekwe

    Priest · Nigeria

    Killed 17 June in Abia State while attempting to mediate a family dispute.

  13. Emmanuel Alabi

    Seminarian · Nigeria

    Abducted 10 July from his seminary in Edo State; died from injuries during captivity. Read his story

  14. Augustine Dauda Amadu

    Priest · Sierra Leone

    Killed in his home near Kenema on the night of 29–30 August.

  15. Matthew Eya

    Priest · Nigeria

    Shot 19 September on the road back to his parish in Enugu State.

  16. Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada

    Priest · Mexico

    Disappeared 4 October in Cocula, Guerrero; found dead 6 October.

  17. Mark Christian Malaca

    Lay Catholic teacher · Philippines

    Shot 4 November in San Juan, where he lived; he taught at St. Stephen Academy in Laur.

Names, roles, dates, and places: Agenzia Fides, “Missionaries and Pastoral Workers Killed in 2025” (PDF).

Why it matters

Whole communities lose a lifeline

A parish priest or catechist is often also a teacher, mediator, and first responder. When one is killed or kidnapped, schools close and the people who depended on them are left more vulnerable.

Most of those killed were local

The Fides list is mostly nationals of the countries where they died. Protecting religious workers means strengthening local security and justice, not only guarding visitors.

Religious freedom is a measurable concern

USCIRF’s 2026 report names Nigeria among the countries where it finds “particularly severe” violations — context for why pastoral workers there face such risk.

Accurate memory resists silence

Names and verified facts outlast headlines. Careful record-keeping by groups like Fides lets families, dioceses, and advocates press for investigations and accountability.

What you can do

Small, concrete steps. Each link leads to an official or established organization.

  1. Read the full record

    Spend ten minutes with the Fides dossier. Knowing the names and circumstances is the start of honest advocacy.

    Open the Fides dossier (PDF)

  2. Learn the country context

    USCIRF publishes country pages with findings and policy recommendations, including for Nigeria.

    USCIRF: Nigeria

  3. Write to your representatives

    Ask your members of Congress to support religious freedom and the protection of civilians in the countries USCIRF identifies.

    Find your representative

  4. Support established relief work

    Organizations such as Open Doors work directly with persecuted Christian communities. Review any charity before giving.

    Visit Open Doors US

  5. Remember them together

    Share this list with a class, small group, or congregation, and pray for the families and communities they left.

    Return to the names

Sources & further reading

A note on imagery. This site intentionally uses typography rather than photographs. Accurate, appropriately licensed photographs of the people named here were not available, and stock images would risk being mistaken for them. Fides content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license; facts are summarized here with attribution.