Church figures attacked, killed in Libya, Madagascar, Philippines

March 04, 2013

In separate bulletins, the Fides news service has reported an armed assault on a Catholic priest in Libya, the murder of a French missionary nun in Madagascar, and the killing of a lay Catholic activist in the Philippines.

• In Libya, armed militia men attacked a priest in Tripoli on March 2. The incident occurred shortly after a Coptic Orthodox church in Benghazi was attacked.
• In Madagascar, Sister Marie Emmanuel Helesbeux was beaten and then strangled in the town of Mandritsara. Police say that the killers of the 82-year-old nun have been arrested and confessed, saying that they had a dispute about money they owed to the victim.
• Dexter Condez, a Catholic activist who was an advocate for indigenous people fighting against corporate exploitation of local lands, was shot down on February 22. "His murder is a blow to the country's history and of the Church of the Philippines," said the Vincentian Family of the Philippines, of which the victim was a member.

 

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Further information:

• Catholic priest attacked in Tripoli (Fides)
• Deep emotion for the killing of a nun (Fides)
• The activist killed in Boracay was a lay Catholic of the Vincentian Family (Fides)