Prayers asked for nun kidnapped in Mali in 2017

Walter Sanchez Silva   By Walter Sanchez Silva for CNA

August 11, 2021 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez / CEC

San, Mali, Aug 11, 2021 / 14:23 pm (CNA).

An initiative that works to highlight persecution of Christians released Friday a video seeking prayers for Sister Gloria Cecilia Nárvaez Argoti, a missionary who was abducted in Mali in February 2017.

“This exemplary religious wasn’t the one chosen to be kidnapped but she saved the life of one of the younger sisters of her community by offering herself in exchange for her,” says the Aug. 6 video from Project Wake Up, an initiative of the E.U.K. Mamie Foundation.

“In the different videos and notes released by her kidnappers, the sister asks for prayers for her release and to remain unshakable in her faith.”

Project Wake Up wants the faithful always to remember the sister and “above all to not cease praying for her, so that the strength of the Communion of Saints keeps her heart in continuous union with the Lord and sustains her in this hard and prolonged trial.”

In July, Sr. Gloria was allowed to give proof she is alive with a handwritten note in which she asked people to pray for her.

“I send everyone my warmest greetings. May the good Lord bless you and grant you health. I have been a prisoner for four years and now I am with a new group,” the sister wrote in her 11-line message sent to her brother Edgar Narváez Argoti through the Red Cross.

She identified the group now holding her as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, a militant Islamist group in West Africa and the Maghreb.

The nun asked, “may they all pray a great deal for me. May God bless them all. I am hopeful that God will help me to regain my freedom.”

Armed men kidnapped Sister Cecilia, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate and a Colombia native, in Karangasso, about 90 miles south of San, Feb. 7, 2017. The men forced Sister Cecilia to hand over the keys to the community’s ambulance. The vehicle was later found abandoned. Three other sisters were present at their house but escaped.

According to the Associated Press, a judge in the country charged four individuals in relation to the kidnapping in April 2017.

Sr. Cecilia had served in Mali for 12 years before her abduction. Her community administers a large health center in the country, as well as a home where they care for some 30 orphans between one and two years of age.

The religious sisters teach literacy to some 700 Muslim women. They are working on a barn project for times of food shortages, as many mothers in the region die from malnutrition.

The kidnappers were going to take the youngest nun, but Sr. Cecilia volunteered to take her place.

During the last four years there has been proof the sister is still alive, and she has asked for prayers so she can remain steadfast in her faith.

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Biden tells Congress to codify Roe, pass LGBTQ protections

February 8, 2023 Catholic News Agency 1
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The speech marks Biden’s first address to the new Republican-controlled House. / Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Washington D.C., Feb 8, 2023 / 06:08 am (CNA).

During his 2023 State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Joe Biden called on Congress to codify Roe v. Wade and pass legislation banning discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposals put him at odds with the U.S. Catholic bishops.

“Here in the people’s House, it’s our duty to protect all the people’s rights and freedoms,” Biden said. “Congress must restore the right that was taken away [when the Supreme Court overturned] Roe v. Wade.” 

Codifying Roe v. Wade would establish federal abortion laws that mirror the standards that were set under the now obsolete Roe v. Wade decision. Such a law would prohibit states from banning abortion and would prevent certain state-level abortion restrictions.

Since the Supreme Court overturned the ruling, 13 states have banned most abortions and another five have imposed more restrictions on abortion. In six other states, proposed bans and restrictions have been held up in the court system. 

“The vice president and I are doing everything to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient [privacy],” the president said. “But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. Make no mistake about it; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.”

Although Biden is the nation’s second Catholic president, he remains at odds with American Catholic bishops and Catholic Church teaching. In July, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities referred to an attempt to codify Roe v. Wade as “the most unjust and extreme abortion on demand bill our nation has ever seen.” 

Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, tweeted his thoughts on the issue before the president’s speech. 

“The ‘state of the union’ is fatally flawed if we are committed to supporting, promoting, and paying for abortion,” Tobin said. “A nation that destroys its own children has no future.”

The National Right to Life Committee criticized Biden after the State of the Union address. NRLC accused Biden of being “the most pro-abortion president in history.” 

“The Biden administration and the Democratic Party have yet to hear of an abortion they wouldn’t support,” NRLC President Carol Tobias said in a statement. “Tragically, women and their unborn babies will be the ones to suffer.”

In addition to the president’s support for abortion, he reiterated his support for laws that would establish federal civil rights protections for people identifying as LGBTQ. The legislation, known as the Equality Act, would ban discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. 

“Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity,” Biden said. ‘Our strength is not just the example of our power but the power of our example. Let’s remember the world’s watching.”

This legislation has also received pushback from the USCCB. 

According to the Catholic bishops, it would threaten religious freedom by forcing religiously operated organizations and faith-based charities to “host functions that violate their beliefs” and “violate their religious beliefs.” 

The bishops raised their concerns that the legislation would require faith-based hospitals to provide abortions and gender transition surgery. The USCCB also said the act would force biological females to share locker rooms and compete in sports with biological males who identify as female. 

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