Mentally disturbed man kills three Italian nuns in Africa

Police in the capital of Burundi found three murdered Italian nuns, officials and a priest in the African state reported on September 8.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Police said that two suspects have been detained for questioning, while a statement from the nuns' order said that "the murders appeared to be the tragic outcome of an armed robbery or a vendetta".

You can follow in the great tradition of service that these ladies exemplified.

Friar Mario Pulicini, responsible for the parish in Kamenge, a northern suburb of Bujumbura, identified the murdered nuns as 75-year-old Lucia Pulici and 82-year-old Olga Raschietti. He said they were found dead on September 7.

The third nun, 79-year-old Bernadetta Boggian, was found early the next day. Pulicini adding that the killings appeared to have happened at two separate times.

Boggian's body was discovered by the priest, who rushed to the convent after receiving a panicked phone call from other nuns who had heard unusual noises in the house.

"It is very difficult to know the reason behind the killing, but nothing can justify it," he said.

In a statement, the Vatican said the killings had "greatly saddened" Pope Francis. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said in a telegram sent on behalf of the pope: "Pope Francis has learned with great sadness of the murder of three nuns."

The nuns were part of the Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary, headquartered in Parma, Italy. The order made a statement on its website that "the tragic outcome of an armed robbery by a mentally unbalanced person."

The nuns had been serving Burundi for seven years, after working several years in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Raschietti had spent the last 50 years of her life in Africa.

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