Thirty-five priests were killed last year, along with one seminarian and four lay people in the course of their ecclesial ministry. Fides News Agency said that the 40 deaths are almost double the 23 number from 2017.

While Latin America had been the deadliest region for clergy for eight straight years, Africa took over the mantle in 2018, seeing 19 priests, one seminarian and one lay woman killed in the year.

“Many Missionaries have lost their lives during attempted hold-ups and robberies, ferociously committed, in impoverished, degraded social contexts, where violence is the rule of life, the authority of the State was lacking or weakened by corruption and compromises, or where religion is used for other ends,” Fides said.

“Everywhere priests, religious, and laymen share the same daily life as the common people, bringing them the evangelical witness of love and service for all, as a sign of hope and peace, trying to alleviate the suffering of the weak and raising their voices in defense of their trampled rights, denouncing evil and injustice,” it added.

“Even in danger of their own safety, at the request of civil authorities or their own superiors, the Missionaries remained at their posts, aware of the risks which they were running, in order to remain true to the duties they bore.”