Kinshasa, 03 March, 2021 / 6:46 pm (ACI Africa).
At the Eucharistic celebration in memory of late Luca Attanasio, the Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) murdered just over a week ago, the representative of the Holy Father in the Central African nation said that the diplomat’s death offers a call to resist evil and “must not be in vain.”
Luca Attanasio alongside his Italian-born bodyguard, Vittorio Iacovacci, and Congolese driver, Mustafa Milambo were killed February 22 in an ambush on a United Nations convoy in the Eastern part of DRC.
“The death of Luca and Vittorio is not and must not be in vain. In fact, it must be a call not to become accustomed to evil but rather resist evil and pain especially where they seem to have taken up residence, with their sad harvest of victims, among whom, let us not forget, one day could be any one of us,” Archbishop Ettore Balestrero said during the Memorial Mass Tuesday, March 2.
He added in reference to the slain Italian Ambassador and his bodyguard, “Luca and Vittorio have not only left us a testimony, but they have also, in a way, entrusted us with a task of working for the good of all.”
The attack on the UN convoy occurred as the ambassador was travelling from the city of Goma to visit a World Food Programme (WFP) school feeding project in Rutshuru.