Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Vatican

Kidnapped missionary sister freed after four years blessed by Pope Francis

byCNS
11 October 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Blessing: Pope Francis blesses Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argot, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, at the end of Mass on October 10.

Blessing: Pope Francis blesses Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argot, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, at the end of Mass on October 10. Photo: CNS

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

THE day after authorities announced her release from kidnappers in Mali, Colombian Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was at the Vatican for a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica and was greeted by Pope Francis.

He greeted Sister Narváez before and blessed her after the Mass on October 10, which formally opened the process leading up to the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2023.

Sister Narváez, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, had been taken by a group of armed men who broke into the parish in Karangasso village near the Burkina Faso border in February 2017.

She had been working as a missionary for six years in the parish with three other nuns. According to Sister Carmen Isabel Valencia, Sister Narváez offered herself in place of two younger nuns the kidnappers were preparing to take, the French news agency Agence France-Presse reported on October 9.

Multiple governments and intelligence services had spent the past four years and eight months working to ensure her safety and secure her release.

The official Twitter account of the presidency of Mali announced her liberation on October 9 and praised her “courage and bravery”.

Sister Narváez, 59, appeared on state television the same day with Mali’s interim president, Colonel Assimi Goita and Bamako Archbishop Jean Zerbo.

She thanked the Malian authorities and the president “for all the efforts you’ve made to liberate me; may God bless you, may God bless Mali”.

“I am very happy; I stayed healthy for five years, thank God,” she said.

In a letter sent through the Red Cross in July 2017 to her brother in Colombia, she said she was being held by the “Group to Support Islam and Muslims,” a group linked to al-Qaida and the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel.

Related Stories

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

They were the same kidnappers who held hostage Italian Father Pierluigi Maccalli, a member of the Missionaries of Africa, who was released in 2020 after two years of imprisonment.

A source close to the negotiations for Sister Narváez’s liberation told AFP she had not been mistreated and that she had learned the Quran during her captivity.

She appeared in a video in early 2018, begging the pope and her Colombian mother superior to intervene.

Another video later that year showed her with six other Western hostages.

Colombian Archbishop José Ruiz Arenas, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, had told Caracol Radio in 2018 that “the Church has been very vigilant, not only in the heart and the prayer of the Holy Father, but also in his concern to seek” her release.

The Franciscan Sisters had collected more than 90,000 signatures on a petition for her release.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Call for Plenary Council journey to continue with the Holy Spirit

Next Post

Reading Jesus and the rich man is a test of our faith, pope says

CNS

Related Posts

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

27 June 2022
Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families
Vatican

Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

24 June 2022
Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan
Vatican

Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

23 June 2022
Next Post
Test of faith: Pope Francis looks at the story of Jesus and the rich young man.

Reading Jesus and the rich man is a test of our faith, pope says

Apologetics: Evangelisation Brisbane executive director Deacon Peter Pellicaan presenting the first episode of the new podcast Catholic Christianity.

Brisbane-based online platform tackles questions of faith

Church needs to walk with others and listen to them like Jesus did, pope says

Church needs to walk with others and listen to them like Jesus did, pope says

Popular News

  • Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

    Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

by CNS
27 June 2022
0

Christian families are called to embark on a journey of love and service that will lead them...

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

27 June 2022

Why you should go on a pilgrimage — more than once

25 June 2022
Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

25 June 2022

Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

24 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping