Bp Hinder: sisters knew risks of serving Christ in poor

(Vatican Radio) The four religious sisters of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity, slain along with a dozen other victims of terrorist violence in the Yemeni city of Aden on Friday, March 4^th, are, “The martyrs of our day,” and “also victims of indifference – the globalization of indifference,” of which the prevalent silence with regard to the incident in most international mainstream media is proof. These were just a few of the words of Pope Francis at the Angelus on Sunday, during which he renewed his condemnation of the attack on a rest home for the aged run by the sisters, in which sixteen people perished.

The Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia, bishop Paul Hinder, OFM Cap., knew the sisters personally. He told Vatican Radio the sisters knew and understood the dangers involved in keeping up their mission in the war-torn country, and made their decision to stay with the suffering people with eyes wide open. “[The sisters] told me, from the beginning – a year ago, when the war broke out – ‘We must remain with our poor, whatever happens’,” he said.

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Asked whether he knew why the sisters and their mission were targeted, Bishop Hinder said, “I know of no reason, save that of hate of a radical kind,” for which anyone could perpetrate so heinous an act. The Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia went on to say, “A person who truly believes in God can never do anything similar.”