POPE EXPRESSES PAIN FOR MURDERED MISSIONARIES

VATICAN CITY, OCT 4, 2000 (VIS) - At the end of today's weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father expressed his "pain and prayers" for the murder of two missionaries in Uganda and Burundi, and asked for the release of two others who had been kidnapped on September 6 at the Pamalap Mission in the region of Forecariah, Guinea.

"For several weeks now," he said, "worrisome news has been reaching us of bloody attacks in Guinea against the local population and against the refugees of Liberia and Sierra Leone. In the name of God I ask both for an end to so much violence and that everyone's rights be respected, especially those of refugees, who already live in precarious conditions."

The Holy Father asked for the release of Fathers Franco Manganello and Victor Mosele, kidnapped on September 6 and then expressed his "pain and prayers for the two Gospel workers, brutally assassinated in recent days: Fr. Rafaelle of Bari, Combinian, in Uganda, and Antonio Bargiggia, a lay missionary of the Brothers of the Poor, in Burundi. May the Lord receive in His peace these two faithful servants, who fell in fulfilling the 'greatest commandment', that of love."

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