The Diocese of Aberdeen said Brother Ignatius was known for his humility and charity. The diocese stated it has learned with deep sadness of the disappearance and presumed death of Justin Evans, also known as Brother Ignatius, aged 24, a member of the Redemptorist Community on the island of Papa Stronsay. The diocese paid tribute to the monk, who is originally from New Zealand, in its official statement.
Police Scotland said searches of Papa Stronsay and nearby islands would continue in the coming days. Extensive and detailed searches using local police resources and partner agencies have been carried out on the islands of Papa Stronsay and Stronsay, including along the shorelines. Any further relevant information reported to police about Justin and the circumstances leading up to him going missing will be acted upon.
At this time there is nothing to suggest any suspicious circumstances or criminality.
This incident occurs against a backdrop of recent tensions involving the Redemptorist Community. According to the Catholic Herald, members of the Catholic order, modelled on the rule of St Alphonsus Liguori, were told to leave the diocese in July 2024, after a Vatican investigation into allegations of abuse and unauthorised exorcisms. The order appealed the ban, but in August last year Bishop Michael Gielen of the Diocese of Christchurch said that it had been rejected, the Catholic Herald reported.
The Redemptorist Community, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists, has a traditionalist nature. According to the BBC, the order was founded to maintain the practice of celebrating the liturgy in Latin at a time when the Roman Catholic Church was encouraging priests to use local languages. The monastery on Papa Stronsay was founded in the late 1980s by the traditionalist Catholic order Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.
A group of the order's monks banded together to purchase Papa Stronsay after its founder, Father Michael Mary, and some of the priests and brothers visited Orkney on holiday.