« A Few Good Nuns | Main | A Tribute to One Caring, Loving Woman »
September 20, 2006
The Last Words of Sister Leonella
by Tina Grazier
"I forgive, I forgive," she whispered in her native Italian just before she died, the Rev. Maloba Wesonga told The Associated Press at the nun's memorial mass in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday.
Willy Huber, regional director of the Austrian-funded hospital where 65-year-old Sister Leonella had worked for four years, said the killing was not random. "She had no chance," said Huber, who heads the S.O.S. Kinderdorf organization in East Africa. "It was like an execution."
The sister's final words have given us a glimpse into starkly contrasting beliefs in a world fraught with discord, conflict and strife. Sam Harris, a self described liberal and critic of religion made the following statement in the Los Angeles Times:
"A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world -- for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a "war on terror." We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise."
"This is not to say that we are at war with all Muslims. But we are absolutely at war with those who believe that death in defense of the faith is the highest possible good..."
It isn't just death in defense of faith Mr. Harris. It's death unless you submit. It's death in order to create fear so that you will convert. Death! Not love, or mercy, or even, heaven forbid, forgiveness. May God forgive them, as Sister Leonella has, and may their hearts turn away from evil.
Posted by Post Scripts at September 20, 2006 10:52 AM