Last year 132 priests and religious were arrested, abducted or killed globally, according to latest research.
Belarus, China, Nicaragua and Nigeria were identified as the countries where clergy were most under threat. The total figure – up eight on 2022 – only covers confirmed cases , notes Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which conducted the research. The challenges and logistical problems of accessing data in some countries means that the real total is almost certainly higher.
“We are deeply concerned about the rise in threats faced by priests, in countries such as Nigeria and Nicaragua, who are at risk often for simply for carrying out their pastoral ministry,” says Regina Lynch, ACN International executive president. “Authoritarian regimes have resorted to detaining priests and religious in order to punish the Church for speaking out against injustices and human rights violations, or merely for trying to operate freely.”
During 2023, a total of 46 clergy were arrested in Nicaragua, including two bishops and four seminarians, while a number of priests and religious were expelled from the country or refused re-entry after foreign visits.
Nicaraguan authorities arrested at least 19 clerics in the last two weeks of December 2023, including Bishop Isidoro de Carmen Mora Ortega of Siuna. Two priests were later released, and the remaining 17 – as well as Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who was arrested in 2022 and sentenced to 26 years in prison – were expelled from the country on 14 January.
In China, 20 members of the clergy were under arrest at some point in 2023, according to ACN’s sources, even though accurate data is hard to come by.
Authorities in Belarus detained at least 10 priests in 2023. Three of them were still behind bars at the end of the year.
Two priests arrested in Ukraine by Russian forces more than a year ago have not been released either.
In India, where anti-conversion laws are used to impede the work of Catholic organisations, a religious Sister and at least five other priests and religious were detained in 2023. Despite their eventual release, some still face charges that could lead to imprisonment.
When it comes to abductions, ACN highlights, Nigeria was the worst offender with 28 cases, including three religious Sisters. Other countries where kidnappings occurred included Haiti, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. Most of those abducted have been released, but three priests are still missing in Nigeria and one in Burkina Faso.
Of the 132 cases highlighted by the research, 86 members of clergy were arrested or detained during 2023, while the rest were already in custody or missing at the start of the year.
ACN’s statistics include all kidnappings and murders of Catholic priests and religious around the world, while arrests were only tracked when they were related to religious persecution.
Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation directly under the Holy See. It supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in need through information, prayer and action.
Photo: A priest offers communion to a mourner of the late head of the underground Catholic Church in Shanghai, Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, at a funeral home, Shanghai, China, 18 March 2014. Fan was held under house arrest for much of the last two decades of his life. (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images.)
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