Dear Friends,

Here is the latest piece of news that we received about our kidnapped brothers who have been missing for more than 2 1/2 years. The following item originally appeared in French not long ago on the website of a radio station in Bukavu, a large city in the eastern Congo, south of Goma.

"http://www.radiokivu1.org/index.php?action=emissiondetail&emission=Actus%20du%20Kivu&tokene=14&token=1430718459#

It would appear that the three Assumptionist priests kidnapped in Mbau are dead!!!

Abducted the evening of October 19 between 9-10 PM from the parish of Our Lady of the Poor in Mbau in the district of Beni, Fathers Jean-Pierre NDULANI, Edmond KISUGHU and Anselme WASUKUNDI had refused to convert to the Islam of the terrorist forces of the ADF/NALU (Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda, two Muslim-inspired rebel groups opposed to the current government in Uganda).

According to an ex-ADF woman rebel who spent 18 years in the bush with Jamil MUKULU (the main figure of this rebel group, a former Catholic who converted to Islam), these priests were kept in an underground prison in the Medina area (eastern Congo near Beni) where their heads were beaten with hammers and died three days after being taken into captivity."

Several months ago we also heard that a rebel soldier had been taken prisoner by the Congolese army in the eastern Congo. He said that he came from the region where the three priests were assigned. He later converted to Islam and joined the Islamist rebel army. He claimed that he saw the three priests killed in the same way that the woman mentions in the Radio Kivu report. Although we still have no corroboration of these reports, it is looking more and more grim. It is possible that, if they did refuse to convert to Islam and were killed because of their convictions, they are martyrs for the faith.

Please keep them in your prayers as well as their families and our brothers in the Province of Africa.

“A life not lived for others is not a life.” Mother Teresa
"Una vida no entregada al servicio de otros no es una vida." Madre Teresa
"Une vie qui n'est pas vécue pour les autres n'est pas une vie." Mère Teresa

Fr. John L. Franck, A.A.