Religious expelled from Eritrea want to tell tale, but hope to return

Published: 2007-11-19

ROME (CNS) -- The 14 Catholic missionaries forced to leave Eritrea in mid-November are torn between telling the world about the growing loss of rights and increasing poverty in the country and staying quiet in the hope that the government will let them return. "We all want to go back. The people are wonderful, faithful and suffering," one of the expelled missionaries said. "Once you live in Africa, you cannot live anywhere else. "The Catholic Church has kept quiet until now in order to do what we could to help the people," she said after arriving in Rome Nov. 17. "Last night at the airport the people were saying 'Remember us,' 'Speak for us.' But it is a dilemma because we want to go back," the missionary said. She spoke to Catholic News Service on the condition that her name, religious order and nationality would not be revealed. She said she was concerned not only about damaging any chance she had of returning, but also for the fate of the Eritrean sisters she left behind.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .