Irish priest, shot in March, returns to South African hospice he runs

Published: 2007-11-26

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- An Irish priest who was shot by robbers in South Africa has returned to the AIDS hospice he runs and says he is grateful to God for his survival. Passionist Father Kieran Creagh, 44, went home to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in March to recover after he was shot twice in the chest by robbers in the Leratong Hospice in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria. "I feel very blessed to have survived" the attack, Father Creagh said in a mid-November telephone interview from the hospice, noting that doctors told him it is a miracle that he is alive. "The doctor who did the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan said he had never seen anything like it. The bullet went into my back and worked its way around, avoiding every vital organ until it lodged itself in my lung," he said.

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