{"id":3723,"date":"2007-01-01T10:24:41","date_gmt":"2007-01-01T10:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/in-memoriam.html"},"modified":"2007-01-01T10:24:41","modified_gmt":"2007-01-01T10:24:41","slug":"in-memoriam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/in-memoriam.html","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Fides News Service, via Spero News, a list of Catholic missionaries who were killed in 2006:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of People and the FIDES news service<\/a> published on December 30 its roster of missionaries who died violently while spreading the Gospel in 2006. According to the Congregation, 24 priests, professed religious, and lay people were murdered in various parts of the world. The document does \u201cnot intentionally use the word \u2018martyrs\u2019\u201d so as not to anticipate in any way the judgement of the Vatican as to their eventual beatification or canonization as saints. <\/p>\n

Africa, where both Islam and Christianity are making great leaps in gaining adherents, was where the majority of the murders of these Christian witnesses took place. In 2006, nine priests, one nun, and one lay volunteer were murdered even while they were conscious of the risks they took as evangelists. Kenya witnessed the murder of three priests this year, Nigeria saw two dead. Sister Leonella Sgorbati, a missionary nun of the Consolata order, was the only religious sister murdered in Africa; a laywoman missioner from Portugal was also murdered in Africa this year. The world total was one less than 2005. <\/p>\n

In the Americas, there were 6 priests murdered, along with one religious sister and one lay missioner. Asia witnessed the murder of two priests, one religious sister and one lay missionary. Of these, the name of Father Andrea Santoro is notable: while the priest was praying in his chapel, he was murdered by a Muslim teenager in Turkey in advance of the Pope\u2019s pastoral visit. To this list was added another religious, murdered in Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Congregation also made note of the thousands of other Christians around the world who, while their names may be unrecorded, nevertheless gave their lives as testimonials to the Faith. Catholic and non-Catholic Christians have been assaulted and murdered in places like Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Sudan. Recently, for example, ten Catholic bishops who did not conform to the Chinese State-controlled People\u2019s Church were arrested. Their whereabouts is currently unknown. Chinese priests and bishops have long suffered martyrdom and imprisonment under the Communist rule of the Peoples Republic of China. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Fides News Service, via Spero News, a list of Catholic missionaries who were killed in 2006: The Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of People and the FIDES news service published on December 30 its roster of missionaries who died violently while spreading the Gospel in 2006. According to the Congregation, 24 priests, professed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Memoriam - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/01\/in-memoriam.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Memoriam - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the Fides News Service, via Spero News, a list of Catholic missionaries who were killed in 2006: The Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of People and the FIDES news service published on December 30 its roster of missionaries who died violently while spreading the Gospel in 2006. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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