“In the first video they made, on 28 October, they told me to say that the first group that had abducted me were called the ‘Group for the Support of Islam and the Muslims’. This is a group that includes various other associations linked to Al Qaeda,” he says.
The SMA member says that to date, he has never understood the reason for his kidnapping.
“I have asked myself many times why they abducted me, what I had done, what I had said to cause this. I have not been able to recall anything I may have said or done in any way to offend anybody… I believe it was simply that the mission in Bomoanga is an isolated mission station, from which it is easy to abduct someone and then disappear into the forest,” he says of Bomoanga-Niger, the mission from which he was kidnapped.
The Priest says that in Bomoanga-Niger, there is no one guarding the mission, and explains, “It is a mission open to everyone, as befits our missionary approach of being among the people, close to the people and with people. We are easy prey for unscrupulous people with evil intentions.”
Fr. Luigi who says that he has been in contact communication with members of his Society in West Africa notes that the ongoing violence in the Sahel region poses a difficult time for women and men Religious.
(Story continues below)
“The Church was born of persecution, right from its beginnings. From every trial a new community is born, a new awareness. I’m quite certain that this difficult time for me, for my community and for many communities in Africa that are going through this time of terrorism will bear fruits of peace, fruits of liberty, fruits of new life, and perhaps also a new self-awareness in so many communities that are currently being put to the test,” he says.
“I am in contact with my communities in Africa, and they tell me that they are living very much in this state of insecurity. They are often told not to gather together in groups in order not to give the impression of provocation,” he says, adding that Christians in Niger are forced to pray in their own homes to avoid being targeted.
Some Christians, he says, have been forced to abandon their villages, but that they keep on praying and asking the Priest for support.
“We need to pray together that peace may truly reign and that the Kingdom of God may come with power,” Fr. Luigi says.
He recalls that every day, since his abduction, the people in his Diocese and in the country prayed the Rosary every evening.
“Throughout those 17 months they made pilgrimages, held times of prayer. And I know that people also prayed in other parts of the world. There was a river of prayer. I believe that it was prayer that opened the door to my liberation,” he says in acknowledgement.
Meanwhile, Fr. Luigi has appealed for continued prayers for the release of Colombian-born Sr. Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, who was kidnapped by jihadists in southern Mali on February 7, 2017 and is still missing.
“Every day I pray for this Religious Sister, who after four and a half years still remains in the hands of her abductors. I suffered two years of imprisonment, and it was a long time. She has spent twice as long; she is a woman, and she is alone.”
The missionary Priest adds, in reference to the member of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, “I believe that she needs a great many prayers. I ask everyone to pray every day for her and for other prisoners like her, that her liberation may come soon.”
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
