He's Alive News September 2022

Modern Day Martyrs List of Sisters Killed While Serving in Africa

Global Sisters Report (GSR), a project of National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company that gives greater voice to Catholic sisters around the globe, debuts a feature on GSR's website, Women of Faith: Honoring Catholic Sisters Killed in Service in Africa. The page highlights Catholic sisters killed in Africa with photos and short biographies. On Aug. 16, 2021, two South Sudanese sisters were ambushed and killed by gunmen along a highway as they traveled to their convent from an event. Sisters Mary Daniel Abut and Regina Luate Roba of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart archdiocese in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, were traveling in a bus together with seven sisters and five men. They were en route to Juba after attending centenary celebrations at Loa Catholic parish in the Eastern Diocese of Torit when gunmen stopped their bus, forcing the sisters to flee into the bushes. The men pursued and shot the sisters together with two other people. Abut died en route to the hospital. She was the administrator of the congregation’s Usratuna Primary School in Juba and had also served as superior general of the congregation from 2006 to 2018. The sisters’ deaths were a shock to many Catholics across the world and South Sudan. The East African country had been experiencing its longest stretch of peace. In memory of the nuns’ contributions to the church and their communities, a four-day mourning period was announced by the Juba Archdiocese on Aug. 17, 2021. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, passed on the Pope’s condolences stating that he was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal attack and offered his condolences, prayers, and blessings to the sisters’ families and friends.

The sisters were buried on Aug. 20, 2021, at the St. Theresa Cathedral in Juba. References: https://www. globalsistersreport.org/ news/news/news/twonuns-killed-south-sudanafter-vehicle-ambushedalong-highway Launching in time to mark the one-year anniversary (August 16, 2021) of these two sisters brutally murdered along a highway in South Sudan, GSR's project debuts with 43 sisters who have been killed in service throughout Africa. Eventually, the section will be open to reader submissions and highlight sisters killed in service around the world. "We are honored to present this new feature as a way of elevating the life and ministries of Catholic sisters who died while serving others.

Many of these sisters came from small congregations with little funding, and filled vital needs with great love and devotion, but their stories haven't been told until now," said Gail De- George, editor. "These sisters improved education, healthcare, and women and children's lives in African countries, and in this feature, we memorialize their faithfulness and devotion to God's call.'" Details about the origin of the project are outlined in a column by Global Sisters Report Editor Gail DeGeorge, and about how the project was conducted in a separate column by the project's reporter, Wycliff Oundo. The Superior of the Sacred Heart Sisters, Sr. Alice Jurugo Drajea, writes poignantly of the loss of the two South Sudanese sisters and the efforts to honor them, while pursuing the case to bring the perpetrators to justice. You can view the page here.

Global Sisters Report is an independent, non-profit source of news and information about Catholic sisters and the critical issues facing the people they serve. Our network of journalists write about their missions and ministries, and sisters contribute columns on a variety of topics including spirituality and religious life.

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