Pope: Red Cross’ humanitarian work shows that fraternity is possible
The Catholic Church by the numbers: more Catholics but fewer vocations
Humanitarian organizations urge action against famine in Sudan
Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference releases national code of conduct
Pope Francis remembers Benedict XVI in new book: ‘He was like a father to me’
Malaysia mourns Sr Enda Ryan: a life dedicated to women’s education
Filipino Catholic Church presents official portrait of 13-year-old girl considered for sainthood
Religious sisters from the Missionaries of Charity and 14 disabled children from an orphanage in Afghanistan arrived safely on Aug. 25 at Rome’s international airport.
A Catholic priest and five sisters from the order founded by Mother Teresa arrived on one of two evacuation flights from Kabul that landed in Rome on Aug. 25 carrying a total of 277 people.
Fr Giovanni Scalese, the ecclesiastical superior of the Catholic mission in Afghanistan, also arrived on the flight. He spent eight years in Kabul, offering daily Mass for foreign residents in the city at the only Catholic church in Afghanistan, located inside of the Italian embassy.
“I would never have returned to Italy without these children,” Fr. Scalese told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. We could not leave them there.”
The children, aged between six to 20 years old, were residents of an orphanage founded in 2006 by the Missionaries of Charity in Kabul, which has now been forced to close due to the Taliban’s takeover of the city.
Sr Bhatti Shahnaz, another Catholic religious sister who arrived in Rome on the evacuation flight, also worked with disabled children in Afghanistan with her community, the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide.
“The 50 intellectually disabled children we looked after are still there,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Fr Matteo Sanavio, the president of the NGO For the Children of Kabul, was at the airport to welcome the Catholic arrivals from Afghanistan.
“The first moments we shared were smiles under our masks,” Sanavio told Vatican News.
“We were able to embrace, and the first words we said to each other were: ‘We praise the Lord because He has done great things.’”
Italy has welcomed 2,659 evacuated Afghans, about a third of them children, according to the Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini.
Leave a Comment