Slain nun was ready to die for the sick
Sister Ignatia Pia Munai (left) and Sister Rosaline Teresa lead other nuns in wheeling the coffin bearing the body of Sister Leonella Sgorbati after a requiem Mass at the Consolata Shrine in Nairobi yesterday.
Sister Leonella Sgorbati, who was killed outside a hospital where she worked as a missionary in Somalia, was remembered yesterday as a devoted nun who was willing to die to help the starving and sick.
Sister Leonella, 65, was shot in the back four times on Sunday. Her bodyguard was also killed.
Sister Ignatia Pia Munai (left) and Sister Rosaline Teresa lead other nuns in wheeling the coffin bearing the body of Sister Leonella Sgorbati after a requiem Mass at the Consolata Shrine in Nairobi yesterday. Photo/Alex Kamweru
"She was ever so generous," Sister Rose, her colleague at the Consolata Sisters, said during a funeral that drew hundreds of mourners.
"In the end she gave her whole life. May the sacrifice of her life contribute to the peace of the world and of Somalia in particular."
The nun’s death, followed just one day later by Somalia’s first suicide bombing, have raised fears of rising extremist violence in the country after more than 15 years of anarchy.
The Islamic fundamentalists who control Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia have denied responsibility.
Born Rosa Sgorbati in Italy, Sister Leonella had lived and worked in Kenya and Somalia for 38 years. She and her bodyguard were shot as they walked the nine metres from the Mogadishu hospital to the sister’s home, where three other nuns were waiting for her. There was no claim of responsibility for the killings.
Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti, who also serves as the apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, said Sister Leonella knew the dangers of her job. She used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it.
"We can call her a martyr," Bishop Bertin said of the nun, who witnesses say muttered the words "I forgive, I forgive" in Italian after being shot. (AP)
