An Indian nun murdered in 1995 was beatified on Saturday – and one of those celebrating was her assassin.
Clarist Sister Rani Maria Vattalil, 41, was stabbed in front of more than 50 bus passengers on a remote jungle track in Madhya Pradesh state while she travelled to her family home in Kerala.
Samandar Singh, then 22, murdered her on behalf of money lenders upset with Sister Rani Maria’s work setting up self-help groups in the Diocese of Indore. Singh has since been forgiven by the nun’s family and was released from prison.
“Whatever happened has happened. I am sad and sorry about what I did. But now I am happy that the world is recognising and honouring Sister Rani,” Singh, a Hindu, told the Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from his village of Semlia.
Singh was convicted of the murder and initially was sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison. He said Sister Rani Maria’s younger sister – Clarist Sister Selmy – had formally accepted him as her “brother” when he was in prison and lobbied for his early release. Court officials agreed to the release in 2006 after declarations were signed by Sister Selmy, her parents and Church officials.
When Sister Selmy was preparing to return home to southern Kerala state in January 2007 to visit her ailing 82-year-old father, Paul Vattalil, Singh accompanied the nun and apologised to her parents.
Sister Selmy, who serves in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh state, called the beatification “a miracle”. “Sister Rani urges us all to go forward fearlessly,” she said.
Singh, who was in the audience at the beatification, said: “I cannot undo what happened. That was also God’s call. This, too, is God’s call. She was a saint.”
To achieve peace our army needs more guns, bishop says
A bishop in the Central African Republic has called for greater efforts to build a national army to help end the violence that has engulfed the country.
Bishop Nestor-Desire Nongo-Aziagbia of Bossangoa, vice president of the nation’s bishops’ conference, urged the United Nations to lift an arms embargo so government forces could defend themselves.
Thirteen of 16 prefectures in the country are still controlled by armed gangs, despite the presence of UN peacekeepers, according to Agence France-Presse. A UN arms embargo, renewed yearly since 2013, limits the supply of arms to government forces who have gained prior approval from a UN committee.
Bishop Nongo-Aziagbia, who survived abduction by Seleka rebels in 2014, told the Catholic News Service: “A national army is the symbol of a country, and a country without one isn’t a country – we can’t go on relying on foreigners for our security… It’s crucial a commitment is now made to work towards a professional army.”
But the bishop welcomed the strengthening of UN peacekeeping forces, saying the increase of 900 soldiers to the 12,500-strong mission could “mark a turning point”.
War is ugly and cruel, says Pope
Pope Francis said that war brings nothing but “terror and death” during a visit to a war cemetery on All Souls Day last week.
At a Mass at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial site in Nettuno, he said people who wanted to go to war were often “convinced they will usher in a new world… But it ends up as winter – ugly, cruel, a reign of terror and death.” Before the Mass the Pope placed white roses on 10 marble headstones.
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