Hajja Salesjana - May June 2016

30 After a recent attack at a Missionaries of Charity convent in Yemen claimed the lives of four of the sisters there, the bishop overseeing the area said he has no doubt they died as martyrs. “For me there is no doubt that the sisters have been victims of hatred – hatred against our faith,” Bishop Paul Hinder told CNA March 6. “The Missionaries of Charity died as martyrs: as martyrs of charity, as martyrs because they witnessed Christ and shared the lot of Jesus on the Cross,” he said, pointing to one of the prayers they recited daily. The short prayer asks that “Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward.” Recited after their morning Mass and before breakfast, the prayer is one of the last that the sisters would have prayed before being killed. Although he doesn't like to speak of reasons “for an unreasonable act,” Bishop Hinder would be difficult not to see that the event was motivated by “a misled religious mind.” The bishop, who serves as apostolic vicar of the Arabian Peninsula, said that he believes the sisters were a target because certain radical groups in the country “simply do not support the presence of Christians who serve the poorest of the poor.” While so far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, it is believed that carried out by members of either Al-Qaeda or ISIS. He said the attitude obviously goes against the mainstream thought of the Yemen people, the majority of whom appreciate the presence of the Missionaries of Charity as well as their “dedicated service” to the poor. The bishop reiterated that “there is no reason for such an act unless people, who deliberately or not knowingly, are the devil's agents.” Bishop Hinder’s comments follow a March 4 attack at a Missionaries of Charity convent and nursing home for the elderly and disabled persons in Aden, the provisional capital of Yemen, which left 16 dead. Four of the victims were sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, the community founded by Blessed Mother Teresa. They have been identified by the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia as Sr. Anselm from India, Sr. Marguerite MC Sisters martyred in Yemen: Sr. Anselm, Judith, Marguerite & Reginette on the 4th March 2016