India – A Day of Prayer all over India for the Release of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil

18 January 2017

(ANS – New Delhi) – “The entire Catholic Church and especially the Church in India are very worried for Fr. Tom”. Thus is written in a communiqué released on January 14th by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). To this purpose, the Indian Bishops promoted a Day of Prayer at national level, to be held in all the dioceses of the Country, as per convenience, between January 21st and 22nd, to invoke the release of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, the Indian Salesian missionary abducted in Aden, Yemen, on March 4th, 2016.

The text, signed by the CBCI President, Card. Baselios Cleemis, highlights “the anguish and the prayer” with which for the past 10 months the liberation of Fr. Uzhunnalil is being awaited.

“The Bishops’ Conference in constantly in touch with the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, Card. Cleemis informs. Then he adds that the CBCI Secretary General has also been in touch with Bishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar for Southern Arabia and Yemen, who gave assurance that Fr. Uzhunnalil is still alive and safe.

“Once again we launch an appeal to national authorities to do everything possible to have this generous and selfless Catholic priest released”. Hence the exhortation to the faithful and to “all men and women of good will” to join in prayer “for the safety and the liberation of Fr. Tom”, but also “for the conversion of those who are holding him captive”.

For this Day of Prayer, Card. Cleemis wishes that “every place of worship and our houses be filled with prayers for our beloved Fr. Tom”.

The English text of the communiqué is available here.