September 24, 2006

Sister Leonella's Last Words


Drive Through Politics quotes Jeff Jacoby, on Sister Leonella Sgorbati, the nun murdered in Somalia, allegedly in retaliation for Pope Benedict's speech:
As she lay dying in a Mogadishu hospital, Sister Leonella forgave her killers. She had lived in Africa for almost four decades and could speak fluent Somali, but her last words were murmured in Italian, her mother tongue. "Perdono, perdono," she whispered. I forgive, I forgive.

She was 65 and had devoted her life to the care of sick mothers and children. She was on her way to meet three other nuns for lunch on Sunday when two gunmen shot her several times in the back. "Her slaying was not a random attack," the Associated Press reported. It "raised concerns" that she was the latest victim of "growing Islamic radicalism in the country."
Catholics, both Roman and Orthodox, believe in the intercession of the saints. It can't hurt to ask.

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