Aid to the Church in Need: Tanzania: Elderly nun hurt in convent attack

Tanzania: Elderly nun hurt in convent attack

Posted by Press release on 28/5/2009, 5:34 pm
Board Administrator

ACN News: Thursday, 28th May 2009 –

TANZANIA

Elderly nun hurt in convent attack

Charity gives urgent aid to help protect the Sisters

By John Pontifex

CATHOLIC charity Aid to the Church in Need is lending a helping hand after a gang of armed robbers broke into a convent in Tanzania and attacked an elderly nun with a machete.
Armed with knives, guns and sticks, the group of 25 broke into the Monastery of St Mary of the Angels in Mwanza and hit Sr Mary Noel on the head with the flat side of a machete and repeatedly hit her back.
The attackers also beat up workers at the Poor Clares’ convent and four elderly women cared for by the Sisters, stealing money and mobile phones.
Police in the south-east African country were called to the monastery but nobody was caught.
But within the following 48 hours at least a dozen people were arrested and put in custody.
The incident left the Sisters vulnerable to further attack with at least eight doors damaged or destroyed in the incident.
Within days of the atrocity, Sr Mary Assumpta, the abbess in charge of the 45 nuns at the monastery, appealed to Aid to the Church in Need for immediate help to replace the doors.
In response, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians dispatched urgent aid of $2,800
In her letter appealing for help, Abbess Assumpta wrote: “When the attackers came, Sr Noel was not afraid. She told us: ‘God has given the courage.’”
The abbess went on to describe how, moments after Sr Noel was attacked, other nuns arrived and “implored with all their strength for God’s help”.

Poor Clare Sisters of the Monastery of St Mary of the Angels, Mwanza, Tanzania (Photo: ACN)

In another letter thanking ACN for its support, the Abbess wrote: “Your support is an encouragement and such a help, invigorating our apostolate and service for the Church, especially when we are passing through these difficult days.”
The incident coincided with a $10,000 grant from ACN for a solar system providing electricity for the convent.
Sr Noel’s current condition is unknown. Latest reports say that the Sisters were traumatised by the ordeal but are slowly recovering.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org