Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, had just released its annual report of Catholic missionaries killed in the year almost ended. Then the report had to be updated.
Fr. Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo, a pharmacist by training who served the Diocese of Nnewi in Nigeria, was driving on the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, in Ihiala, in the southeast of the country, on the evening of December 26. Fr. Okonkwo ran various health facilities, such as the nursing and midwifery schools and the medical laboratory of the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Ihiala.
While on the road, he was approached by a group of unidentified persons between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.,” Fides said. According to the diocese, he died after being shot several times.
Catholic News Agency noted that Fr. Okonkwo was born in August 1984 and ordained a priest in July 2015.
With his death, the total number of pastoral workers and missionaries killed in 2024 rose to 14. That includes nine priests and five lay people.
6 others in Africa, 5 in Americas
In its initial report, Fides said that the African and American continents recorded the highest number of pastoral workers killed. In addition to Fr. Okonkwo in Nigeria, Africa saw a total of six missionaries killed: two in Burkina Faso, one in Cameroon, one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and two in South Africa.
The five killed in the Americas included one each in Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico, and Brazil. There were two in Europe: one in Poland and one in Spain.
Fides said that its annual report uses the term “missionaries” to refer to those who are involved in some way in pastoral works and ecclesial activities.
Though the 14 in Fides’ 2024 roster died violently they did not necessarily die "in hatred of the faith," and therefore are not termed “martyrs” in the annual tally. Some of them might, however, eventually be recognized by the Church as martyrs and be considered for beatification or canonization.
Aleteia has reached out to the Diocese of Nnewi. There has been no word of a possible motive for the killing of Fr. Okonkwo.
