An Italian religious sister, aged 83, was brutally murdered in an armed attack on a church mission in Mozambique.

Sister María de Coppi, a Comboni religious sister who had been working for 59 years in the country, was shot and died instantly in the attack on the Chipene mission in the diocese of Nacala, which began at 9.00 pm and continued until 2.00 am. The attackers ransacked and burned not only the mission church but also the school, the health centre, the dwellings of the priests and of the nuns, the library, the boys’ and girls’ boarding houses and the vehicles belonging to the mission. “They destroyed everything”, reported Bishop Alberto Vera of Nacala, speaking on the telephone to the Portuguese national office of Aid to the Church in Need.

“The attackers broke open the tabernacle and vandalised part of the sacristy, looking for whatever they could find – probably money”, the bishop continued. Speaking to ACN, Bishop Vera said he did not think this was in fact an attack against the Church, but rather a way of seeking international attention. “This is a major coup for them because there were foreign religious here… They are seeking some kind of international publicity. I don’t think it was directed against the Church. What they did was an act of terror.”