24 killed in line of duty

VATICAN CITY -- Fides, the news agency of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, reported that 24 priests, religious and lay workers "lost their lives in a violent way" in 2006, one less than in 2005.

The murdered church workers, Fides said, are not necessarily persecuted for their faith, but more often are victims "of aggression, robbery or theft perpetrated in social contexts marked by particular violence, human degradation and poverty, which these peacemakers tried to alleviate with their presence and their work."

Fides included in its list St. Joseph Sr. Karen Klimczak, who was murdered in April at the Buffalo, N.Y., home she founded for former prisoners. A resident was charged with the murder.

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