Church in the World

Murder of nun 'not linked to Regensburg lecture'

Somalia

The Vatican this week denounced the killing of 66-year-old Sister Leonella Sgorbati in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Her order refused to link her murder last Sunday to Pope Benedict XVI's recent comments on Islam.

Two armed men shot and killed the Consolata missionary and a Somali bodyguard in the SOS Kindergarten Hospital in Mogadishu where she worked. "It is a terrible incident. We hope it will be isolated," said the Vatican press office spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi. "I think it is the fruit of violence and irrationality, arising from the current situation, which is without motive or reason." A sister of the Consolata Missionaries in Italy told the Reuters news agency that the congregation had "no reason" to believe that the nun's murder took place in protest against the Pope's discourse on Tuesday last week at the University of Regensburg.

On Friday, a prominent hardline Mogadishu cleric had said at a mosque in southern Mogadishu: "Whoever offends our Prophet Muhammad should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim." However, Sheikh Muktar Robow, deputy security chief of Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), told Missionary International Service news agency: "We condemn the killing of the nun. It was barbaric and contrary to the teachings of Islam." One of the murderers had been captured, Sheikh Robow said, "and is collaborating. We hope now to capture his accomplice."

Around midday on Sunday, Sister Leonella was crossing the road between SOS Hospital where she worked and the SOS Village where she and four other women Religious lived. Two gunmen emerged from behind nearby taxis and shot her. She was rushed to the SOS Hospital and died shortly afterwards.

Her order issued a statement saying Sister Leonella's last words were "I forgive, I forgive". Her body had seven bullet wounds.