Nigerian priest stabbed blocks from St. Peter's Square

Published: 2005-06-09

ROME (CNS) -- A professor of theology at a Rome university and founder of a Nigerian religious order was attacked and stabbed just outside his residence, a few blocks from St. Peter's Square. According to Italian news reports, Nigerian Father John Egbulefu, 55, was walking home around 10 p.m. June 8 when a motor scooter sped by him and circled back around. The unknown assailant reportedly drove his scooter onto the sidewalk, stopped alongside the priest, then attacked him with a knife, the June 9 reports said. "He was in very serious condition when they brought him to the hospital last night," said Consolata Father Giovanni Marconcini, general secretary of Urbanian University, where Father Egbulefu has taught dogmatic theology for nearly 20 years. "He was hit in the colon. He lost lots of blood, but they operated on him last night, and now he is in stable condition," Father Marconcini told Catholic News Service June 9, just a few hours after visiting the Nigerian priest in the hospital.

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