According to figures compiled by the Vatican’s mission agency Fides, seventeen Catholic missionaries and pastoral workers were killed worldwide in 2025 alone. Among them were ten priests, two seminarians, two catechists, two religious sisters, and one layman. The number marked a modest increase on the previous year, when fourteen were killed. Taken over a longer horizon, the scale becomes harder to ignore: from 2000 to 2025, no fewer than 626 missionaries and pastoral workers lost their lives while serving the Church.