Grim tally of clergy arrested, kidnapped, and murdered in 2023

In 2023, thirteen priests and one religious brother were murdered, though half were killed for reasons seemingly unrelated to persecution. Arrests also increased in this time.

According to research by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a total of 132 Catholic priests and religious were arrested, kidnapped, or murdered in 2023.

This figure increased from 124 in 2022. These are, however, only confirmed cases, and the actual number could be higher, since reliable information is difficult to obtain in some countries.

Of these victims, 86 were clergy arrested or detained at some point in 2023. Some of the priests and religious had been arrested or abducted before the year began, but remained in custody or were missing for some or all of 2023. This compares to 55 who were under arrest at some point in 2022.

Nicaragua and Belarus lead the list of authoritarian regimes detaining priests and religious to punish the Church for operating freely and speaking out against injustice. In Belarus, at least 10 were detained by the authorities, with three still behind bars as 2023 ended.

In Nicaragua, a total of 46 clergy were under arrest in 2023, including two bishops and four seminarians, while others, including religious sisters, were expelled from the country or refused reentry. Many of the priests who had been arrested were eventually released or sent into exile, but a major crackdown in December led to the arrest of at least 19 clerics, including Bishop Isidoro de Carmen Mora Ortega of Siuna. Two of the priests were later released, but the remaining 17—as well as Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who was arrested in August 2022 and later sentenced to 26 years in prison—remain in custody.

Even if confirming the information is almost impossible, ACN numbers indicate 20 cases of clergy arrests in China last year, some of the clergy still unaccounted for after many years. But the actual number could be higher, or even slightly lower, as some priests or bishops may have been released without details being made public.

Fathers Ivan Levitskyi and Bohdan Heleta, the two Greek Catholic priests arrested in Ukraine by Russian forces in 2022, have also not been released.

And in India, where anti-conversion laws continue to impede the work of the Church, at least six clergy were arrested in 2023, including one woman religious. All have been released, though some still face charges that could lead to prison sentences.

Kidnappings down, but still worrisome

The number of priests and religious sisters kidnapped in 2023 dropped to 33 from 54 in 2022, but the threat remains significant. This total includes five priests who were abducted in previous years, but remained in their kidnappers’ hands or were unaccounted for in 2023.

Nigeria leads the list by far, with 28 cases, including three women religious, while Haiti had two cases. Other countries where priests were kidnapped include Mali and Burkina Faso, while in Ethiopia, one woman religious was abducted.

There was one case in Nigeria of a monk who was murdered by his kidnappers. Otherwise, the vast majority of those kidnapped ended up being released, except for four priests: John Bako Shekwolo from Nigeria and Joël Yougbaré from Burkina Faso, who have been missing since 2019, and Joseph Igweagu and Christopher Ogide, both from Nigeria, missing since 2022.

This is the second year that ACN has tracked all kidnappings, murders, and arrests of Catholic clergy and religious around the world. Regarding arrests, ACN tracks only those that are related to persecution, excluding proven cases of ordinary criminality. Cases related to members of other confessions are not included in the tally.

Highest number of murders in Nigeria

2023 saw 14 murders of clergy and religious, including 11 priests, one bishop, one religious brother, and one seminarian. This represents a drop from the 18 registered in 2022. As far as ACN was able to ascertain, no women religious were murdered last year.

Seven of the killings took place under circumstances that were either unclear or not directly related to any confirmed persecution. These included the murder of a bishop and a priest in the United States, a priest in Colombia, a priest in Mexico, a religious brother in Cameroon, a priest in Burkina Faso, and a priest in Nigeria.

Of the other seven deaths directly related to persecution, Nigeria has the highest number on the list with three. Father Isaac Achi was brutally murdered in January, when he was unable to escape his residence as it burned to the ground in an attack, and seminarian Na’aman Danlami, who suffered the same fate in September. Soon afterwards, in October, Godwin Eze, a Benedictine brother who had been abducted alongside two novices, was murdered by his kidnappers.

Some of the murders were classified as being linked to persecution, despite the murderers’ unclear motives. Father Pamphili Nada was killed in Tanzania by a mentally unstable man. In Mexico, Father Javier García Villafaña was found shot dead by unknown assailants, in a region where organized crime is common, and those who speak out against it are often targeted by drug cartels. And in December, an elderly Belgian Father, Leopold Feyen, known locally as Pol, was stabbed to death by armed men who broke into his house in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he had served for decades.