Sources from the Xaverian order
have denied reports that three Italian nuns killed in Burundi
were also raped.
Two suspects have reportedly been detained in the African
nation.
One of the elderly nuns, who were working as missionaries,
was decapitated in attacks with no apparent motive.
The victims are Bernadette Boggian, 79, and Olga
Raschietti, 83, both originally from the Veneto region; and
Lucia Pulici, 75, who was originally from Lombardy.
Godefroid Bizimana, vice director-general of the Burundi
police, said that Boggian was found to have been beheaded in the
attacks which apparently occurred several hours apart in the
nuns' convent in the city of Kamenge north of the national
capital.
All three women were in poor health, but their love of
Africa and especially Burundi drove them to continue to work
there, said a leader of their Xaverian order.
"We are shocked and very surprised: the local population is
as shocked as us," and coming together to pray for the three
women, said Sister Giordana Bertacchini, director-general of the
Xaverian Missionaries of Parma in north-central Italy.
A botched robbery attempt was an early theory for the
attack, but was reportedly dismissed because nothing appeared to
have been stolen.
Two of the three nuns were found with their throats slit,
an anonymous police official said, while Kamenge Mayor Damien
Baseka described the murders as "savage".
The bodies of Pulici and Raschietti were found on Sunday
afternoon, leading to initial reports that only two nuns had
been killed. Boggian's body was found several hours later.
It is believed that Boggian discovered her two slain
colleagues, alerted police and Church officials, and several
hours later was herself murdered and beheaded by an attacker who
apparently had remained hidden in the convent after the initial
violence.
Pope Francis was "deeply saddened" by the murders and sent
a message of condolence to the nuns' order as well as their
families and friends.
He said he hoped the "bloodshed becomes the seed of hope
for building authentic brotherhood between peoples," he said.
Premier Matteo Renzi described the crime as "an atrocity
that leaves one dismayed at the savagery".
Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini expressed
condolences and said the killings brought "great pain".
Vatican Radio said the three nuns had been working among
the sick and poor for seven years in Burundi, a predominantly
Catholic country described as one of the five poorest countries
in the world.
Previously, they had been missionaries in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Raschietti had spent 50 years in Africa.
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