ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 6th of September
MARIA DE COPPI, MISSIONARY AND MARTYR
“I have experienced beautiful and difficult times in this country: First the colonial times, then war followed by a time of peace and, today, unfortunately, a time of terrorism.”
(Sister Maria De Coppi)
Terrorists in Mozambique shot dead an 83-year-old nun during an attack on a Catholic mission.
Comboni Sister Maria De Coppi was killed during an attack by militants at a mission in the village of Chipene in the province of Nampula, Mozambique, during the night between September 6/7, 2022. Perhaps just hours or less before her murder in northern Mozambique as militants swept into the area, Comboni Sister Maria De Coppi left a voice message with her niece, urging her to pray for the people on the run.
According to the Vatican newspaper September 8, Sister Bottani, who is international coordinator of the Talitha Kum anti-trafficking network based in Rome, called her aunt back as soon as she heard the message. “I asked her, ‘Auntie, you’re not leaving?’ and, after a moment of silence, she answered ‘I don’t know, I want to wait,” Sister Bottani said, according to the Vatican newspaper article.
According to Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Italian Sister De Coppi, 84, was killed by a bullet to the head during the night between Sept. 6 and 7 during an attack on their mission. She had been serving in Mozambique since 1963.
According to reports sent to Fides, those who attacked destroyed the mission’s structures, including the church, the hospital and the primary and secondary school. Fides reported the nun was killed while trying to reach the dormitory where the few remaining students were.
The BBC reported September 8 that the Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed four Christians, including Sister De Coppi. IS said it killed the nun because she had “excessively engaged in spreading Christianity,” the BBC reported.
Archbishop Inácio Saúre of Nampula, Mozambique, told Fides that if the militants’ claims are true, then Sister De Coppi “is truly a martyr of the faith.”
Sources: https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/09/09/comboni-sister-murder-mozambique-prayers-243717
https://www.agenzianova.com/en/news/Mozambique-the-Islamic-state-claims-the-killing-of-Sister-Maria-de-Coppi/
https://combonimissionaries.org/another-life-for-the-mission/
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