An experience of sequester

 

in the words of
sr. Maria Teresa Olivero and sr. Catherine Giraudo   
     


Rita Salerno (courtesy)

Italian version

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They came back to Italy a few days ago, but they left their heart in Africa, in the country where they had practically spent their entire existence –both of them were in Kenya for almost thirty-five years- near the destitute, the forgotten by everybody, specially by the international community. They are sr Maria Theresa Olivero and sr Catherine Giraudo, respectively sixty-eight and sixty years old, missionaries of the Contemplative Movement of Father Charles de Foucauld, sequestered on the night between ninth and 10th November 2008, in the structure of El Wak, a small village in the extreme north-east of Kenya, almost near the boundary with Somalia. They were sequestered by a gang of about ten armed men. Both of them have narrated that they were treated well, though moments of anguish were not missing.

We are not interested to speak here on the dynamics of liberation, whether they paid to be  ransomed or not. We do not want to mention the absence of the authorities at their arrival on the evening of last 27th February in the airport of Caselle. We want to offer a story to those who will read these pages, a story of faith at the service of the least and undefended people who live in a land forgotten by all, in a zone of boundary between Somalia and Kenya. “It has been hard, very hard –these were their first words- and we would not have been able to stand the trial without the help of the Lord”.

The first to answer the phone call was sr Maria Theresa Olivero, from Centallo in the province of Cuneo; she has been lending her work in Kenya for thirty-five years. Her voice was limpid, emotionally firm when “she thanked all those who, in the hundred and two days of their being prisoners, had prayed for their lot and had made them feel their invisible presence”.

Have there been difficult moments during these 102 days of imprisonment? Were you scared for your life?

“There were many moments in which we felt that tensions in the air were not missing. Personally I experienced anguish very much, but not desperation. From the very first moment of the kidnap, when we were in the car with our sequesters driving towards Somalia, I clearly realised this: the world suffers, the world suffers. There are many people who suffer, and what was happening to us was part of that suffering. This is what I felt in my heart. We had always feared at the thought of being held as hostages, but we never foresaw when this would happen. Now, we were within this vicissitude and we had to live it, there was no way to subtract ourselves from it, we could not help undergoing it. Of course, we were afraid to lose our life. Though deeply respected by the kidnappers, we could not know what they had in mind. Moreover, in the heart of Somalia, in a zone of blazing attacks, it was not clear what the epilogue of our story would be.  

In an interview by Vatican Radio, both of you  declared that it is faith that supported you during this period. Is it true?

“Faith has always been our support, the rock which we could get hold of. Faith in the Lord  supported us during these 102 days of prison. In that experience of faith, God made us to discover our poverty. We are indeed very poor. I experienced much poverty. In some moments we felt stripped naked of everything, of security and certainties, mainly because we  were without any news and communication with the external world. Both sr Catherine and I sometimes looked at each other and saw our face transformed by the suffering we had on.

I feel that this suffering has purified us a lot. It has compelled us to live the simplicity of this trial, as well as its hardness, without clinging on ourselves and without egoisms. It has helped us to understand and to pay attention to live our existence moment by moment, to live one for the other in our daily reality, in the name of God. In that naked reality, I clearly felt in my heart the voice of Christ saying: “I am alive and risen among you’. This was the sentence we used to repeat, also in the worst moments. ‘Jesus is risen and is among us. I am the meek and humble lamb of God, He who heals the hardness of your heart and the heart of him who holds you as hostage.’

From the day in which we were set free, I carry in my heart an immeasurable gratitude for the mediators who have been working and suffering with us passionately and uninterruptedly,  during all the time of negotiations for our liberation. I thank all of you for your prayer, support and proximity. We came to know and felt that you were close to us. From the moment of liberation up-to-date I have been feeling astonished at the discovery of the solidarity with us, which you have been nourishing during these months. This gladdens my heart because your sensitivity proves the goodness that inhabits the heart of every person and many men. Sr Catherine and I feel supported, thanks to this chain of solidarity. This current of fraternity will go on being the support of the persons who undergo the hard trials of life. This actually gives me the strength to continue our service day after day”.  

Will you go back to Africa again?

“I have been living there long; I was twenty-four when I put my foot on that land. I am desirous to go back to Kenya, where we have three fraternities, which we are in contact with. We shall see what can be done. Of course, we do not have the intention of going again through the experience we have lived. One thing is sure: our heart is there and I wish to go back, not as a heroine, however. I wish to go simply as a sister, to carry on my mission at the side of my brothers and sisters

What has this experience and the contact with the people you met during your imprisonment  taught you?

“They taught me that constant prayer, alone or together with others, lived in constant union with the Lord, can do everything. This has been our constant thought. One cannot live an experience like this without faith. We knew this already, but today, after the lived difficult moments, it has become a doubtless certainty. Faith has truly been our support and our joy, though amidst many tears and a lot of anguish. I feel deeply grateful at the thought that the Lord is faithful. At times I felt to be very poor, for which often we together asked the Lord to free us. The Lord has set us free in different ways. Now I desire to walk with more energy and trust, living instant after instant according to His will”.

Why have you chosen to join the contemplative movement inspired by De Foucauld?

“The first thought that comes to my mind in answer to this question is that of going back to my pst time. I was very young when I came here for a retreat and when Father Andrew Gasparino, our Founder, made a reflection  on this sentence from the Gospel: When you invite somebody, do not do it with the rich men who may turn to be useful for you, but think of those who cannot pay back anything. Be open to this free gift. This is what I actually discovered in this community from the very beginning and this is what attracted me. The second aspect was prayer, staying in front of the Lord who transforms us and moulds our heart, even the hardest heart, making it more welcoming”.

Does the sense of your presence in that zone call back the charism of you movement?

“Yes. We have always been searching the poorest among the population. I was very happy to visit them in their houses, especially those who could no longer walk or those who did not dare because of being too poor. I carry them in my heart.  Particularly in this latest time, I feel that the Lord is calling me to benevolence, that is, to see goodness in others and to let them notice it. A very solid friendships has been created with Muslim persons, brothers and sisters in God”. 

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Sr Catherine  Giraudo, usually called Rinuccia by everybody, from Boves, Cuneo, sixty-eight years old, has been a missionary in Kenya  for thirty-five years. Here is what she says on her mission at the service of the poorest.

“The zone of Elwak is a desert territory, inhabited mostly by nomad populations. They depend totally on the rainy seasons and on water-wells, which constitute their greatest richness. The control of wells often is s source of tensions among different groups. During the month of November, we lived moments of non indifferent conflicts between two tribes. We tried to be close to the poor and undefended, to those who suffered particularly that violent situation. As Maria Theresa has already mentioned, our community tries to live what the name itself of our movement expresses: “to be contemplative”, that is, believing that prayer is our first mission, the sense of whatever we live; “missionaries”, namely, sent to the poor, to those who suffer in many ways, because of being marginalised, despised, not loved, thus sharing with them the love of God, according to the style of Father De Foucauld, that is, in a simple service near the people; a service that seeks, beyond work itself, to offer friendship and a welcoming space, where the other may re-discover its dignity

Our fraternity wants to be a little presence of prayer in the Muslim world, as well as a presence of service to the many poor who come to our house, especially under-nourished children, anaemic mothers, sufferers of epilepsy, aged in solitude….they are truly many the faces we met and helped during the past years in the fraternity.

There is also a little Christian community that walks with us, a community made up by employers of the Keniota government, who are sent to El Wak, from other parts of Kenya, for work purposes. We pray and share the Word of God with them: for many this is truly a possibility of going to the root of their faith”.   

Do you think of going to Africa again?

“It is too early to answer this question !!! What I know is that I carry Kenya in my heart: I know that I have experienced a too strong detachment to go far from our fraternity at El Wak at the moment of the kidnap …and then also later, at the time of liberation, I felt the sorrow of leaving without being able to go and greet our people at El Wak. But I nourish the certainty that the Lord will continue to guide our life, as he has been doing so far”.

What is left in you? What has this experience taught you?

“This is the experience within me: the moment we are stripped naked of all things, but really of all things (not only of material things, but also of our work, of our needful people desirous of making “a beautiful figure” and of being said to be right, etc), we strongly discover the essential and the reciprocal richness: there was nothing more that divided us, we were truly and deeply sisters, in our being constantly tending to help and relieve one another. It has been a unique experience for me. There, I discovered that faith, and only faith gives sense to life and sustains us”.  

About our kidnappers…of course, they were terrorists, but we have also many remembrances of their kindnesses, attentions, solicitudes. For this, we cannot bear them any grudge, but we are rather sorry for what they live and we go on  praying for them”.

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