"Diabolical wave of killings"

 

Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC)
solidarity letter to the Mozambican Episcopal Conference CEM)
on the killing of Sr Maria de Coppi

Reply by the CEM president
Archbishop Inácio Saure IMC
(translated from Portuguese)

LETTER OF GRATITUDE

To the SACBC President

Dearest Brother in Christ

With my heart bleeding because of another barbaric attack against poor, innocent, defenceless civilians on Mozambican soil, of which a victim was Sr Maria De Coppi, an Italian Combonian Missionary, 83 years of age, who spent 59 years as a Missionary in Mozambique, in the name of my Brother Bishops of the Mozambique Episcopal Conference, in the name of the Comboni Missionaries and in my own name, our sincerest gratitude for your message of condolences and fraternal solidarity of yesterday.

When I heard at 22h30 on 6 September the tragic news of the cowardly murder of a religious at the Catholic Mission of Chipene, Diocese of Nacala, I spontaneously felt the desire to say frankly to the killers: You are insensitive and truly ungrateful. How can you repay good with evil? In truth, Sr Maria De Coppi spent her nearly six decades as a Missionary in Mozambique doing good, seeking, like Jesus, to enrich the lives of the poor with her evangelical poverty. She completely immersed herself in the mission of service to the poor, the least in society, especially women. Her last battlefield was a boarding school for disadvantaged girls, involving the Church in Mozambique in the struggle for the dignity of women.

As the prophet Isaiah teaches us - God continues to appeal to us with a categorical imperative: Console, Console My people (Is 40:1). I make these words of God my own. The people of Mozambique need those that console, those that help them to eradicate, once and forever, this diabolical wave of killings and destruction in their land.

Fearful of the speed with which cruelty is spreading in our country, we pray to God that similar things will not happen in South Africa, and in no other country in the region. We remain united in prayer.

Always yours in Christ

+ Inacio Saure, IMC
President of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique