Sr. Veronika Racková may be buried in South Sudan

The possibility of having the body of the Slovak nun, Sr. Veronika Theresia Racková who died at Nairobi hospital last Friday, 20 May back to South Sudan for burial in the course of the week is being considered.

Sr. Veronika, 58, is a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS).

She succumbed to gun wounds when the ambulance she was driving from Harvest Hospital in Yei (South Sudan) was shot at several times by a “suspected group of soldiers ” on night patrol.

The  SSpS Communication office published a message titled “Solemn Requiem Mass for Sr. Veronika” and stated, “Due to the complexity and legal implications of the situation, we cannot, at the moment, confirm the place and date of the funeral.”

On Monday, 23 May, a member of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD), SSpS’s male counterpart congregation in Kenya, told CANAA that plans are underway to airlift the body of Sr. Veronika back to her last mission in the Catholic Diocese of Yei in South Sudan for burial there.

The option of having Sr. Veronika buried in South Sudan is a response to pleas from the people she was serving and will depend on the approval from the Embassy of South Sudan in Nairobi and how logistical challenges are dealt with.

(By Father Don Bosco Onyalla, CANAA,  Nairobi )

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