2014-09-12 09:07:00

Burundi: Three slain missionary sisters put to rest


(Vatican Radio) A funeral mass was held at the Cathedral in Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday for the three Xaverian missionary sisters killed in neighboring Burundi at the weekend.  

Listen to Tracey McClure's report:

Sr. Lucia Pulici, Sr. Olga Raschietti and Sr. Bernadetta Boggian of the Missionary Sisters of Mary were savagely murdered on September 7 in their convent at Kamenge, a district of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura.

Investigations are still ongoing as to why the three elderly nuns were killed. The sisters, ranging from 75 to 82 years of age, had lived the last seven years in Burundi, offering healthcare, spiritual and social support to the poor and local communities. Before moving to Burundi, they had worked many years in the DRC.

Former regional superior of the Xaverian Sisters for the Congo and Burundi, Sr. Delia Guadagnini, told Fides news agency the sisters were “totally at the service of the people and were greatly loved.”

The three sisters’ coffins were taken for burial at  the Xaverian cemetery in Bukavo in eastern DRC after a memorial mass and prayer vigil in Bujumbura.   Sr. Delia says she and her fellow sisters were comforted by the vast number of people “from the simplest to the authorites” who turned out to say farewell. The three missionary sisters and the people they cared for in Burundi and Congo had all desired that they be buried in Africa, as a sign of their great love to the end.

 








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