The Nun killed for her faith

Her name was Sister Leonella Sgorbati, and she spent many years of her beautiful life as Fr. Andrea Santoro (see below) did, serving God in a Muslim region. And that was their “crime.” Who is paying attention to this?

Benedict, among others. He sent a telegram of condolences to the superior general of the nun’s congregation, recognizing the grievous tragedy and finding a way to turn it into a message of hope.

“Having learned of the tragic death of Sr Leonella Sgorbati,” the message reads, “who was savagely killed in Mogadishu, the Supreme Pontiff wishes to express his closeness to Consolata Missionary congregation, as well as to the relatives of the lamented nun who joyfully worked at the service of the Somali population especially in favour of new life and in the area of health training.  In reaffirming steadfast disapproval of all forms of violence,” the telegram goes to say, “His Holiness hopes that the blood spilt by such a faithful disciple of the Gospel becomes the seed of hope for building authentic brotherhood among peoples in reciprocal respect for the religious convictions of all and, in raising fervent prayers of suffrage for this meritorious missionary, imparts his apostolic blessing to her religious sisters and to all those who are mourning her violent death.”

Know what that meritorious missionary work was?

Sr Leonella, born 65 years ago in Piacenza, Italy, and who spent the last 16 years working in Africa, was killed Sunday in Mogadishu by, reports say, two armed men in a paediatric hospital run by Austrian NGO “S.O.S.”.

She spent the last 16 years training nurses to care for the sick and the poor in a place that was nearly all Muslim.

According to her sister nuns, her last words were “I forgive”, which she repeated 3 times.

Who has a more powerful message to convert?