Three Xaverian missionary sisters killed in Burundi

(Vatican Radio)  Three elderly Italian nuns were killed over the weekend in their convent in Burundi.  The Superior of the Xaverians in the northern suburb of the capital, Bujumbura, Fr. Mario Pulcini, says the murders appeared to be the tragic outcome of an armed robbery or a vendetta and that nothing can justify the killing.

Two of the Xaverian Missionaries of Mary sisters, 75 year old Lucia Pulici – who had been due to celebrate her birthday Monday – and 82 year old Olga Raschietti, were found dead in their mission of Kamenge on Sunday.  The third, 79 year old Sister Bernardetta Boggian, was discovered early Monday by Fr. Pulcini who had rushed to the convent after a panicked phone call from the sisters who had heard unusual noises in the house.

The three nuns had been working among the sick and poor in Burundi for the last seven years.  Prior to that, they had been missionaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sr. Olga had spent the last fifty years of her life in Africa.  Xaverian sisters in Parma have told reporters that they are shocked by the killings and awed by the fact that the Kamenge mission is “full of people” who have come to mourn the nuns and express their solidarity.

Sr. Lucia worked mostly as a care-giver says Fr. Pulcini:  “she treated thousands of sick people” and was very involved in parish life.  “She was very well loved by the people.”   Sr. Olga also possessed “great sensitivity” for the sick, making efforts to fill their specific needs, he adds.  Sr. Bernardetta, who was superior for many years, he notes, dedicated herself mostly to the sewing school they had set up for girls.

The three nuns were also remembered in a special mass in Vicenza, in northern Italy.  Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin concelebrated a mass on the Feast of the Birth of Our Lady at the shrine of Monte Berico, where he called for prayers for the victims and their families and for all those who are persecuted on the basis of their faith.

Today, Xaverian Missionary Sisters live in some 40 communities and  are present in the United States, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Japan and Thailand. They live in small mission communities, often in areas of great poverty where they engage in evangelization, and provide health care and support to those in need.