A Catholic priest, five Religious sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Theresa, and 14 disabled children from an orphanage were safely evacuated from Kabul last week.

Father Giovanni Scalese had spent eight years in Kabul, offering daily Mass for foreign residents in the city at the only Catholic church in Afghanistan, located inside the Italian embassy.

“I would never have returned to Italy without these children,” Father Scalese told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The children were residents of an orphanage founded in 2006 by the Missionaries of Charity, which has now been forced to close due to the Taliban’s takeover.

Sister Bhatti Shahnaz, another Catholic religious sister who arrived in Rome on the evacuation flight, also worked with disabled children in Afghanistan with her community, the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide.

“The 50 intellectually disabled children we looked after are still there,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Italy has welcomed 2,659 evacuated Afghans, about a third of them children, according to the Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini.

Father Matteo Sanavio, the president of the NGO For the Children of Kabul, said: “We really must thank the Italian forces for their work and dedication, for everything … They managed to bring the nuns to safety, these little seeds of Christian charity present in Afghanistan, and above all, we must thank them for having brought our children, those of the Missionaries of Charity, who have severe disabilities.”