Msgr. Claverie latest in long list of slain Bishops

(ANSA) - Rome, August 2 - Mons. Pierre Claverie, O.P., who was murdered by a car bomb yesterday in Oran, Algeria, is only the last of a long list of Roman Catholic Bishops killed throughout the world during the past twenty years.

The following chronology gives times, places and presumed reasons for the killings:

1975, December 12

The Philippine Bishop Hernando Antiporda and his assistant were slaughtered in their sleep by three assassins in a convent in Manila, The Philippines. The murderers had broken into the convent to steal 1,600 in offerings.

1977, March 23

The archbishop of Brazzaville (Congo), Cardinal Emile Biayenda was kidnapped and killed.

1980, March 24

In El Salvador, Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot in the back while celebrating Mass. Romero, who was the archbishop of San Salvador, had been a Nobel Peace prize candidate in 1979.

1987, July 20

The auxiliary bishop of Aguarico (Ecuador), Mons. Alejandro Ugarte was killed during a mission among Indio tribes, along with Sister Ines Arango. Tribesmen shot both of them with poisoned arrows.

1989, July 9

The Italian bishop of Mogadishu (Somalia), Salvatore Colombo, was shot in the capital city for reasons as yet unknown.

1989, October 1

Mons. Jesus Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve, bishop of Arauca (Colombia), was kidnapped and murdered by guerrillas of the National Liberation Army.

1993, May 24

The archbishop of Guadalajara (Mexico), Card. Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo was murdered during a shoot-out at the city's local airport. He was the third cardinal to be killed in this century.

1993, June 26

Bishop Roberto Joaquin Ramos Umano was killed in an ambush on the way to Comalapa airport in El Salvador. The attack was probably an attempted robbery.

1994, June 7

Tutsi soldiers outside Gitarama, in Ruanda, attacked the Archbishop of Kingali, Vincent Nsengiyumva, the Bishop of Byumba, Joseph Ruzindana and Thaddee Nsengiyumva, president of the Ruandese Episcopal Conference. All three of them were killed.

1996, June 3

Mons. Ivo Gucic was slain in his apartment in Podgorica, Montenegro,Yugoslavia. He had retired as bishop of Kotor in April.