(LifeSiteNews) – The bishops of Malawi strongly condemned the recent abduction and torture of a Catholic nun as an act of religious persecution.
In a statement issued Friday, April 12, the Malawi bishops expressed their “deepest shock and dismay” upon learning “that a Catholic nun was on Thursday morning, April 11th, 2024, abducted in Zomba by unknown occupants of a car that stopped for her pretending to be good Samaritans.”
They condemned the anti-Catholic violence by the non-Christian assailants, who tore from her the cross and rosary she wore as part of her religious habit, throwing them out the car window.
Let us pray for an end to attacks against the faith: 🙏
Catholic Bishops in Malawi have condemned, “in the strongest terms”, the abduction, torture, and assault of a woman Religious in the country’s Catholic Diocese of Zomba.
“The assailants went further and demonstrated their… pic.twitter.com/cdfhsnmEVF
— ACI Africa (@aciafricanews) April 15, 2024
“The Catholic nun was assaulted and tortured by the occupants of the car, who took her to a destination beyond where she was intending to go,” the bishops recounted. “In the course of assaulting her, the assailants told the Catholic nun that the assault was due to the fact that they do not subscribe to her faith and to her identity as a religious.”
The assailants went further and demonstrated their intolerance by forcefully removing and throwing out of the car window the Rosary and the cross she was wearing and thus leaving her hurt, helpless and traumatized.
Everyone knows that the Rosary and cross are religious articles that give an identity and are a sacred value to an individual who wears and uses them. While we may treat this as an isolated case, we wish to condemn this appalling and distressing incident in the strongest terms, this is one incident among several others that have occurred in our country recently and we fear that this has the potential to disrupt the peace that Malawian society is known for.
Every peace-loving Malawian knows that the Supreme Law of our Nation, which is our Constitution, provides for freedom of worship and thus every citizen has the right to belong to any religious grouping of his or her choice and cannot therefore be barred from practicing and indeed, manifesting the religion of his or her choice anywhere in the country.
Since this particular matter has been left in the hands of the law enforcers they will diligently investigate this horrific attack on the Catholic nun and other similar cases, so that justice is done and that these degenerating hateful tendencies of religious intolerances are curtailed and dealt with once and for all.
In a pastoral letter issued February 25, the bishops similarly condemned increased incidents of religious persecution in Malawi. In the letter, which also denounced corruption in the government, the bishops wrote, “Recently, we have witnessed increased incidents of religious based physical and verbal attacks in some parts of our peace-loving country. Regardless of what triggered the said forms of violence and attacks, we condemn such attacks in the strongest terms possible. Such barbaric behaviour has no place in a democratic and God-fearing country which is based on the rule of law, love and a constitution which guarantees freedom of religion for all people in this country.”
“We call on all citizens to respect the religious beliefs of others and to allow them to practice their faith in freedom. We call upon law enforcements agents to act decisively wherever such evil and criminal acts occur without fear of favour. We call upon all religious leaders, Christian or not, to assist their fellow believers to translate their religious beliefs to love, peace, unity and justice as anything contrary to these values comes from the evil one, namely Satan.”
The Malawi bishops were among the African episcopal conferences that strongly opposed the “blessing” of same-sex couples after the promulgation of Fiducia Supplicans by the Vatican. They expressly forbade any clergy from granting such blessings in Malawi.
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