CV NEWS FEED // Six religious missionaries and one priest working at a mission in Haiti were kidnapped Friday morning and are being held for ransom, becoming the latest victims in an gang-kidnapping epidemic sweeping across Haiti.
Vatican News reported that the six kidnapped religious are members of the Congregation of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They were abducted by an armed group on their way to a mission school on Friday morning.
A priest, who also taught at the school, was kidnapped that morning as well, shortly after he finished celebrating Mass.
“For several years, absurd and unjustified violence has befallen the peaceful Haitian people, and even people who devote their lives to the cause of the most vulnerable are not spared,” the parish said, according to news outlet Barron’s.
Barron’s also reported that a ransom demand has been made.
According to Vatican News, the latest religious kidnappings in Haiti come just one month after six nuns were released following their abduction on January 19.
Gang warfare in Port-au-Prince also led to an explosion on January 28 that wounded Bishop Pierre-André Dumasvice, the vice-president of the Haitian Bishops Conference. He has since undergone surgery and is now improving, Vatican News reported.
According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 people—including gang members—were killed, injured, or kidnapped in January 2024, making it the most violent month the country has experienced in over two years.
CatholicVote previously reported:
Haiti has been in an economic and safety crisis since Haiti’s former president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July of 2021. Gang activity is prevalent throughout the country and in an effort to make money, gang members kidnap foreigners and hold them for ransom.
Paradoxically, the few remaining foreign citizens in Haiti are mostly Christian volunteers who are working to alleviate poverty and serve those suffering from it.
“The Haitian bishops have repeatedly pleaded for the restoration of security in Haiti and in a recent statement joined in calling for [Prime Minister] Ariel to step aside ‘for the good of the Nation,’ while urging Haitians not to yield to violence,” Vatican News reported.
