Mombasa, Kenya, Aug 29, 2019 / 11:10 am (CNA).- Ahead of a papal trip to Africa, the “popemobile” – the vehicle in which Pope Francis will travel – has been shipped from Kenya to Mozambique, the first stop on the pope’s six-day swing through three African nations.
The “popemobile” is the same one the pontiff used during his 2015 visit to Kenya. It was shipped by sea from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Aug. 17, to Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique.
Fr. Benjamin Maswali, apostolic administrator to Kenya’s military ordinariate, told ACI Africa that the vehicle was inspected by Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, before it was authorized for shipment.
The vehicle was repainted and its seat covers were replaced before it was shipped.
Archbishop Bert van Megan, apostolic nuncio to Kenya, told ACI Africa that Vatican police contacted his office in June about having the “popemobile” shipped to Mozambique.
Archbishop van Megan told ACI Africa that because of the unique aspects of a papal trip, the pope’s vehicle, “must be relatively high so everyone can see the Holy Father when touring through the streets of the city.”
“It should be stable, sturdy and fast in case of an emergency,” the nuncio said, adding that the vehicle “needs to have the necessary protection against wind and rain.”
He confirmed that the car being temporarily transferred to Maputo, a modified Isuzu pickup truck, “met all the special requirements that a 'popemobile' needs” including being “light and friendly in design.”
“It should therefore come as no surprise that the team of the Vatican, preparing the papal visit, came up with the idea to use the same vehicle for the papal visit in Mozambique as well,” Archbishop van Megen said.
After it is used by the pope, the “popemobile” will be returned to Kenya, where it will be kept in storage for future papal trips to Africa.
A version of this story was initially reported by CNA's sister agency, ACI Africa. It has been adapted by CNA.
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Monica Biboso and her employer, Ester Rot, while celebrating Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) in the dining room of Kibbutz Be’eri in 2022. “I don’t feel like a hero because I saved Ester” during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Biboso told CNA. “I would do anything to save her. I just treated her like my mother. Every child would do the same.” / Credit: Photo courtesy of Monica Biboso
Jerusalem, Oct 7, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).
One year has passed since Monica Biboso, a 36-year-old Filipino woman who has worked as a caregiver in Israel for over 10 years, was suddenly awakened by the noise of bombs and gunfire in Kibbutz Be’eri, close to the Gaza border.
In a conversation with CNA, Biboso’s eyes moistened as she recalled that day. Hamas fighters surrounded the house, shattered the windows, and set the home ablaze. She still has nightmares and jumps whenever someone knocks on the door of her room at the David Dead Sea Resort by the Dead Sea, where she has been displaced for the past year.
An outing in Sderot of the caregivers who worked at Kibbutz Be’eri on Sept. 5, 2023. Biboso and her employer were transferred to a hotel on the Dead Sea, along with the surviving residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, after the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. About 10 of Biboso’s colleagues joined them, while two died in the attack and five returned to the Philippines. Credit: Monica Biboso
During the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel that took the lives of almost 1,200 people, 101 civilians were killed in Be’eri and 30 hostages were taken to Gaza, 11 of whom are still being held in captivity.
Biboso not only survived, but she also managed to protect the elderly lady she was caring for — Ester Rot, who is 81 and has dementia. They were the only two survivors from their neighborhood.
“I have never stopped praying because I have always believed that God was there,” Biboso, a Catholic, told CNA. “All the time, I prayed to God and asked him that if my time had come, he would at least protect my children. But God did not want to call me yet, and I survived.”
Biboso is married to a fellow countryman she met in Israel who had returned to the Philippines just a few days before Oct. 7. The couple has two children, ages 7 and 5, who are growing up in the Philippines under the care of Biboso’s sister.
Monica Biboso with her family in the Philippines in April 2024: her husband, Roberto; her daughter, Sofya; and her son, Clarence. In the first few hours of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas, she managed to stay in touch with them, then her cellphone ran out of power. “When I was able to turn my phone back on, I found video messages from my children, crying, kissing and telling me to take care of myself.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Monica Biboso
In the first few hours of being locked in the house’s safe room, Biboso stayed in touch with her family, her Filipino colleagues in the kibbutz, and Rot’s children, but then her cellphone battery died.
“When I was able to turn my phone back on, I found video messages from my children, crying, kissing, and telling me to take care of myself,” she recalled.
Biboso, who was locked in the shelter with Rot for 16 hours, has been trying to forget the experience, but from the start it was clear it would never be possible.
“All the time, I carry my bag with my documents and important things. I am afraid of losing them again. Every night before going to sleep, I need to check outside and lock the door.”
For the past year, Biboso has been undergoing psychological therapy, which is helping her cope with the memories, fear, anguish, and nightmares — and to talk about what she went through.
“When I heard the sirens, I woke Mrs. Ester up, changed her, and dressed her quickly. I gave her her medicine and something to help her sleep, and we took refuge in the safe room of the house. I understood that the situation was serious, as I could hear the gunshots getting closer and closer,” Biboso recounted to CNA.
The closed caption television cameras that Rot’s children had previously installed in the house showed Hamas militants coming and going until they managed to break into the house.
Screenshot of camera footage from Ester Rot’s home at 10:51 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Be’eri, where Monica Biboso lived and worked as a caregiver for the elderly woman. Two armed men can be seen in the lower left of the screen near the home. Around 11 a.m., Hamas fighters managed to break into the house by blasting a hole with explosives. Shortly afterward they set fire to the house. Credit: Courtesy of Monica Biboso
“For the entire time I was locked in the shelter, I kept praying and saying to God, ‘Help us, I know it’s impossible to save us, but I know you can save us.’”
Around 11 a.m., the Hamas fighters broke into the house by blasting a hole with explosives.
“Maybe God heard me because they couldn’t open the shelter door. I was holding the handle from the inside. He gave me incredible strength.”
The door to the shelter where Monica Biboso and her employer, Ester Rot, were barricaded for 16 hours during the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, Oct. 7, 2023. The photo was taken by Biboso when she had the chance to return and check the situation in January 2024. “For the entire time I was locked in the shelter, I kept praying and saying to God, ‘Help us, I know it’s impossible to save us, but I know you can save us,’” Biboso told CNA. “Maybe God heard me because they couldn’t open the shelter door. I was holding the handle from the inside. He gave me incredible strength.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Monica Biboso
Then they set fire to the house.
“We could barely breathe, it was so hot. We had no water, no food, nothing. I thought we were going to die, but I kept praying.”
When asked how she was able to survive, Biboso said: “God saved me. No one was able to help us. I was weak, I couldn’t breathe, my body was shaking, and I was lying on the floor, but I kept praying. Because of him, I survived. I truly believe that. He was with me the entire time I was in the shelter. I could feel it. Without God, I wouldn’t be here.”
The living room of Ester Rot’s home in Kibbutz Be’eri, where Monica Biboso lived and worked as a caregiver for the elderly woman. The house was completely burned down during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The photo was taken by Biboso when she had the chance to return in January 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Monica Biboso
Biboso and Rot spent a day in the hospital, then they were transferred to a hotel on the Dead Sea along with the surviving residents of Kibbutz Be’eri. About 10 of Biboso’s colleagues were among them. (Two others died in the attack and five returned to the Philippines.)
“Together with my husband, we decided it was best for me to stay, at least for the time being. I could never have left Mrs. Ester or allowed her to end up in a nursing home after surviving all this. She is like a mother to me,” said Biboso, who lost her own mother at the age of 16.
“I don’t feel like a hero because I saved Mrs. Ester,” Biboso added. “I would do anything to save her. I just treated her like my mother. Every child would do the same.”
“I knew that if I wanted to have any chance of healing and overcoming this trauma, I could only do it here,” she said. “In Israel, psychologists could help me because they understand the context.”
Ultimately, economic reasons also motivated Biboso to stay. Currently, her salary is the only stable income for her family, whom she was able to reunite with for some weeks in April.
Life at the hotel follows a fairly regular routine. “When we get up, I help Mrs. Ester with breakfast, give her a bath, take her for a walk, and do exercises. After lunch, we rest. When I can’t sleep, I crochet. It helps me relax.” Sometimes the two walk along the sea, take a swim, and spend time with friends.
Four months after Oct. 7, Biboso visited Kibbutz Be’eri together with Rot’s children. “It was very hard. I couldn’t stay there for long.” The house was completely destroyed by the flames.
“All my things were burned, everything was reduced to ashes,” Biboso recounted, “But my rosary didn’t burn. I found it beside my bed. It was a little burnt, but the beads were intact, and the cross was still a cross. My husband gave it to me and I used to pray with it every day before sleeping. I know I’m safe because of it.”
Monica Biboso’s rosary, the only one of her belongings left intact after the home of Ester Rot, the elderly woman she cared for and where she also lived in Kibbutz Be’eri, was set on fire by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. “All my things were reduced to ashes,” Biboso recounted, “but my rosary didn’t burn. My husband gave it to me and I used to pray with it every day before sleeping. I know I’m safe because of it.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Monica Biboso
To this day, every night, Bibosa prays the rosary before bedtime. “In the Philippines, when my mother was alive, every day at 6 o’clock we prayed the rosary together before having dinner. I kept doing it.”
After Oct. 7, a nun living in Tel Aviv called Biboso every day, and they prayed together. “She’s helped me a lot. If I can’t sleep, I call her, and we pray together over the phone.”
“Prayer is a big help to me in healing, lightening the burden on my heart, and freeing my mind from negative thoughts,” Biboso said.
Ester Rot, the elderly woman with whom Monica Biboso works as a caregiver, on the shore of the Dead Sea. After surviving the massacre carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the two were displaced to the David Dead Sea Resort along with the other surviving residents of Kibbutz Be’eri. Credit: Photo courtesy of Monica Biboso
In mid-October, Biboso and Rot are expected to move to Kibbutz Hatzerim, where new housing units have been built for the Be’eri survivors.
“First, you need to have faith in God and be thankful for everything,” Biboso said. “You just need to trust him, and he will make a way to save you. This war will also end because of him. He will find a way to bring good out of it all.”
As the war over control of Ethiopia’s Tigray region expands into neighboring regions, the country’s bishops on Saturday urged an end to the violence.
“It saddens our hearts hearing about war while we all would like to hear about peace and reconciliation,” read a July 17 statement from the Ethiopian bishops’ conference. The conference had held its ordinary assembly July 13-16 in Mojo, about 50 miles southeast of Addis Ababa.
Fighting has been taking place in Tigray since November 2020 between the regional government of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and federal forces.
In the last week, the Tigray war has expanded into the neighboring Afar region; it had already crossed into the Amhara region.
Ethiopia’s bishops commented that “as Pastors, we cannot but feel the anguish and pain that the people are going through.”
The bishops “prayed for the peace of our country and the safety of our people,” making special mention of Bishop Tesfasilassie Medhin of the Ethiopian Eparchy of Adigrat.
The bishops said they “kindly urge” the parties in conflict to halt the violence and strive toward peaceful co-existence, saying, “War only destroys lives and properties and nothing more and the choice to be made should not be a war but peace and reconciliation.”
Violence, the bishops said, “is never a remedy for wrongs or a solution to a crisis.”
“It is never too late to stop the violence, to acknowledge that the only way forward, for the good of the people, is peace and reconciliation, to satisfy the demands of truth and justice, to ask for and grant forgiveness, to do what is necessary to restore mutual trust, to recognize others as our brothers and sisters, no matter who they are and how deep our disagreements are, and to settle any differences through dialogue and negotiation,” they stated.
The bishops also encouraged the people of God to put their hope in Christ, saying, “It is the only way that we can heal together as a country, as a society, and as a Church.”
They further urge Ethiopians to embrace one another regardless of their differences as “there are no ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, no ‘them’ and ‘us’; we are all brothers and sisters.”
“Living in peace and social harmony may seem like a dream but it is attainable if we stretch out our hands to God, the Father of all, in prayer and allow Him to mold our hearts and minds to think thoughts of peace and fraternity and act accordingly,” the Ethiopian bishops said.
It is their desire, the bishops added, to see a nation where “all Ethiopians embrace each other as brothers and sisters.”
“May The Almighty God who created all of us as brothers and sisters fill our hearts with wisdom to choose brotherhood and sisterhood than hatred and revenge and make us an instrument of peace,” the bishops concluded.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s long-ruling political coalition. That coalition was dissolved in 2018 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s after he took office. The coalition’s ethnicity-based regional parties were merged into a single party, the Prosperity Party, which the TPLF refused to join.
Tigrayan leaders have said they were unfairly targeted by political purges and allegations of corruption. They have argued that Abiy’s postponement of national elections due to coronavirus have ended his mandate as a legitimate leader.
On Nov. 4, 2020 Abiy announced a military offensive in response to an alleged attack on a military base in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray. The prime minister aims to arrest the regional government heads and to destroy its military arsenal.
Thousands of people are estimated to have been killed on both sides of the conflict, some in massacres. Each side blames the other for the conflict. The war is also exacerbating famine and a water crisis.
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