KOLKATA (UCAN): Two Jesuit priests from India and four nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, who were stranded in trouble-torn Afghanistan after the Taliban took control on August 16 [Sunday Examiner, August 22 and September 5] are safe.
It was confirmed that Father Jerome Sequeira, the head of the Jesuit mission in Afghanistan, and his assistant, Father Robert Rodrigues—had returned to India from Afghanistan.
“Yes, our priests have safely returned to India,” a Jesuit priest said on September 8, adding, “They have completed their quarantine as per the Covid-19 protocol and are taking rest now.”
Jesuit sources indicated that their leadership has been instructed not to speak to the media about the priests’ return or about their mission in the troubled country.
Meanwhile four nuns from the Missionaries of Charity also made it to safety.
“Our four nuns have been shifted out of Afghanistan and are safe,” said Kolkata-based Sister Christy on September 8. “We thank everyone who prayed and supported us in the hour of crisis.” She refused to divulge any further details of the rescued nuns and their current location except to say that they are not in India.
However, CNS reported on August 27 that Barnabite Father Giovanni Scalese, head of the Catholic mission in Afghanistan, together with some nuns from Missionaries of Charity along with 14 orphaned and disabled children and young adults in their care, landed safely at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on August 25 [Sunday Examiner, September 5].
The Jesuits arrived in Afghanistan in 2004 to work with the Afghanis to rebuild the war-ravaged nation through education. That was two years after Pope John Paul II established a mission for Afghanistan in May 2002.
The Missionaries of Charity also started its mission in Afghanistan in 2004.
The Jesuit link with Afghanistan goes back more than 400 years to 1581 when the Mughal emperor, Akbar, took a Jesuit priest from Agra, in northern India, to Kabul. A year later, Jesuit Brother Bento de Goes stopped in Kabul on his way to China.
In 2014, suspected Taliban fighters abducted Father Alexis Prem Kumar in Afghanistan while he was visiting a school in Herat province. He was released in February 2015.
