As gunmen descended on a Catholic mission in Yelwata, Benue State, Nigeria, in the summer of 2025, the night boiled over in fire and death.
Over a hundred Christians, many of them displaced families taking refuge in the mission, were slaughtered in what witnesses describe as one of the worst mass killings in recent memory.
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Pausing to offer prayers at the Sunday Angelus, Pope Leo XIV condemned the atrocity. It renewed his appeal to combatants to stop the violence, as he invoked security, justice, and peace for rural Christian communities.
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The Vatican released a statement days later expressing closeness to Nigerian Catholics and gratitude from local bishops for the Holy Father’s concern.
All things considered, when you’ve lost everything,
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