CNS STORY: Religious expelled from Eritrea want to tell tale, but hope to return

The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.

Get all the news!

If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250

Copyright:

This material
may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed.

Copyright
(c) 2007
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.

CNS Story:

ERITREA-MISSIONARIES Nov-19-2007 (530 words) xxxi

Religious expelled from Eritrea want to tell tale, but hope to return

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- The 14 Catholic missionaries forced to leave Eritrea in mid-November are torn between telling the world about the growing loss of rights and increasing poverty in the country and staying quiet in the hope that the government will let them return.

"We all want to go back. The people are wonderful, faithful and suffering," one of the expelled missionaries said. "Once you live in Africa, you cannot live anywhere else.

"The Catholic Church has kept quiet until now in order to do what we could to help the people," she said after arriving in Rome Nov. 17.

"Last night at the airport the people were saying 'Remember us,' 'Speak for us.' But it is a dilemma because we want to go back," the missionary said.

She spoke to Catholic News Service on the condition that her name, religious order and nationality would not be revealed.

She said she was concerned not only about damaging any chance she had of returning, but also for the fate of the Eritrean sisters she left behind.

Eritrea's government tries to control every aspect of its citizens' lives "from universities to bread," she said. "It is ideological. They use the border dispute with Ethiopia as an excuse, but they would do anything to hold on to power."

"Most of the nongovernmental organizations have been forced out," she said. "But this is the first time they have gone after the Catholic Church.

"They say, 'We are OK. We are self-contained. We can manage on our own,' but, of course, they cannot. People are starving. Food is rationed. No one drinks tea anymore because there is no sugar," she said.

The 14 missionaries held residency permits that expired early in 2007, she said. Catholic Church officials "begged the government" to extend the visas and were able to get several reprieves. Then, she said, in early November "they told us we had two weeks to leave."

Other foreign missionaries remain in the country, "but if they follow the same process when their permits expire, they may have to leave," she said.

The group expelled included seven Italians, a Filipino, two U.S. citizens, two Mexicans, a Colombian and a Kenyan.

Four Comboni priests, two Comboni sisters and a member of the Daughters of Charity expelled decided that they would speak out once they returned to Rome.

They told Vatican Radio Nov. 18 that they were given two official explanations for being expelled: their refusal to serve in the military and the fact that foreign employees of nongovernmental organizations can stay in the country a maximum of two years.

The Combonis said the real reason was the government's desire to control the Catholic Church like it controls every other sphere of life in Eritrea.

Sister Isabella Limongi, of the Daughters of Charity, told Vatican Radio that the departure of the missionaries will mean the Eritrean people will not be able to feel and experience the solidarity of the international church.

"The bridge between us and them -- which certainly gave the people, the church and our (Eritrean) sisters so much courage -- will be missing," she said.

END

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250