Barnabite priest Fr. Giovanni Scalese, ecclesiastical superior of the Catholic mission Sui Iuris in Afghanistan, told la Repu-bblica in late August how he helped 14 disabled children and 5 nuns escape from the embattled city of Kabul.
Father Scalese spoke to the newspaper the day after landing in Rome on Aug. 25, saying, ”I would have never returned to Italy without these children. We couldn’t leave them there.”
The 14 children had been cared for by a group of nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. These nuns have been keeping orphans off the streets of Kabul for the last 20 years. The 14 children were between the ages of 6 and 20, with some confined to wheelchairs.
Scalese updated his followers on social media upon reaching Rome. “We thank the Lord for the success of the operation,” wrote the priest in a Facebook post. A missionary in Afghani-stan for seven years, Scalese told SIR, the media arm for Italian bishops, that he was concerned after the Taliban takeover but felt safe in the Italian embassy.