Every year, the Vatican’s Agenzia Fides, which tracks the work of Catholic missionaries around the world, releases a grim list of how many of its own have been killed while serving the church. Last year, 13 priests were among the dead, most of whom were killed in the course of violent robberies, and nearly 400 church-affiliated workers have been murdered since 2000.
But even for a church that has grown accustomed to a certain amount of violence in its bloody history, including priests murdered by government-sanctioned death squads, the brutal murder of an elderly French priest, Jacques Hamel, at the hands of two men claiming to be Islamic State militants represents a particular challenge to Pope Francis and other church leaders.
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