Peruvian police have launched an investigation into the murder of a lay Italian Catholic missionary in northern Peru, an “unjustifiable act of violence” denounced Pope Francis.
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Missionary Nadia de Munari, 50, who had lived in Peru for three decades, was seriously injured on April 21 in an assault on an educational center for children and adolescents in Nuevo Chimbote, 400 kilometers from Lima, where she lived and worked. She succumbed to her injuries on Saturday.
The missionary had been attacked with a machete and hammer as she slept in her room on the third floor of the building. The Peruvian Police Department of Criminal Investigations is responsible for the investigation.
Pope Francis has expressed “his strongest disapproval of this new act of unjustifiable violence, which adds to the many others in which missionaries have lost their lives while selflessly carrying out their service in the service of the Gospel and of relief. to the most needy and defenseless ”.
Francis sent this message in Spanish to the Bishop of Nuevo Chimbote, Angel Francisco Simon Piorno, through the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima.
The missionary’s funeral took place on Wednesday and her remains will be repatriated to Italy.