ICC Note:
74-year-old Catholic nun and Canadian citizen Gilberte Bussière and two Italian priests, Fathers Gianantonio Allegri and Giampaolo Marta, have been kidnapped by suspected members of radical Islamist front, Boko-Haram of neighboring Nigeria. The second such kidnapping in less than 6 months, the victims were taken during an armed raid of a small, rural Catholic school in Tchéré. ICC joins many members of the international community and global body of Christ, including the Catholic Papacy, in offering up prayers on behalf of the kidnapped and calling for their immediate and unconditional release.
Cameroon (NationalPost) – Even cancer could not keep Sister Gilberte Bussière away from the children of Cameroon.
Just a few months after she left a Montreal hospital to resume teaching at a rural Catholic mission in the geographical heart of Africa, on the southern fringes of the vast Saharan desert, the 74-year-old Canadian nun was abducted along with two Italian priests in an overnight armed raid Saturday, believed to be conducted by the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.
The Congrégation de Notre Dame in Montreal said in a statement its sisters “are united in prayer in support of Sister Gilberte and the two priests who were also abducted.” An interview request was declined, citing security reasons.
As a massive security sweep by Cameroonian forces began Sunday, Pope Francis issued a statement saying he was praying for the three, including Father Gianantonio Allegri and Father Giampaolo Marta, both of Vicenza in the northeast of Italy, and was hopeful of a safe return.
Born in Asbestos, Quebec, Sister Gilberte, 74, who took the name Sister Sainte-Marie-de-l’?Assomption, has worked in Cameroon since 1979, after teaching for two decades in Lac Mégantic and Athabaska, Que. She had lately stopped teaching, according to a spokeswoman for the congregation, whose motto is Liberating Education. But she was still tutoring students and aiding with homework, at the little church school in the village of Tchéré, near the Nigerian border.
In a letter released by the congregation, written last February when Sister Gilberte had returned to Canada for cancer treatment, she describes how frequently her work reminded her that, in Christian service, “we are the Christ of others.”
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