Vatican ambassador dies after being shot in the head in Burundi

Published: 2003-12-29

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "With deepest sadness and dismay," the Vatican confirmed the death of its ambassador to Burundi, Irish Archbishop Michael A. Courtney, who was shot while on the road to the nation's capital. The nuncio had been hospitalized in serious condition after being hit by three bullets during a Dec. 29 ambush, the Rome-based MISNA news agency said. Upon learning of the archbishop's death, Pope John Paul II immediately went to pray, "entrusting to Christ, the good shepherd, the soul of this faithful and generous servant of the church and the Holy See who died in the exercise of the difficult mission entrusted to him," according to a Vatican statement. The pope sent his condolences to Archbishop Courtney's family, the Vatican said. One of the bullets hit the 58-year-old archbishop in the head, said MISNA, an agency sponsored by Catholic missionary orders. He died later in the day in the operating room of a hospital where doctors were trying to stop a hemorrhage.

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