ROME (Zenit.org): The apostolic vicar who cares for Libya’s few thousand Catholics has approached Muslims to ask for protection during the unrest in the country.
Bishop Giovanni Martinelli of Tripoli affirmed that the attempt to squelch the protests seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi has been very strong, and the “blood that runs here on the streets of Libya impedes a general reconciliation.”
The 69-year-old Franciscan, a native of El Khadra, spoke with Italian station Radio 24 on February 21 about the people’s desire “for more democracy” and the youths’ hopes “to enjoy the goods of the country.”
In a recent interview with Italy’s La Stampa, he compared the revolution wave to that of 1968, saying youth are angry and pointing to the “difficulty of finding a house and of creating a family.”
Given the bloody repression, Bishop Martinelli explained, “[W]e entered into contact with the Red Crescent and other Muslim organisations to appeal for protection of the churches, of the convents, of our faithful and of the sisters who work in the hospitals.”
According to 2005 statistics, Libya is home to about 70,000 Catholics and just eight priests and 30 women religious.
Three of those nuns are Franciscans who work at the Caritas centre, about 10km from Tripoli, where protests continued, despite gunfire from Gadhafi supporters.
The Caritas centre is closed to the public for now. “We are barricaded at home, as we were told, and we cannot reach the centre where there are migrants that we receive,” said Sr Sherly Joseph.
The native of India affirmed that she and the others are safe and declined to comment on what is going on in Libya, for her own safety.
In any case, she affirmed her commitment to those she serves in Libya. “If we live,” she said, “we will live together; if we must die, we will die together.”
