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Report: Catholics in Mozambique reveal extent of violence and killings due to Muslims’ practice of their Christian faith | The Gateway expert
Catholic parishioners in Mozambique recently shared their stories of the violence and murders committed against them by Muslims for daring to practice their Christian faith.
This was said by Catholics from Chipene in Nampulam, a province in northern Mozambique ACI Africa they spoke to a delegation from the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM) with disturbing details about how deadly the ongoing insurgency of militant Islamists in the region is for Christians.
They shared details about the murder of Sr. Maria De Coppian 84-year-old Italian Comboni missionary sister who ministered to malnourished and orphaned children there, almost 60 years after she was reportedly shot dead by insurgents who attacked Chipene’s Comboni Mission in Mozambique’s Nacala Diocese.
After the murder of Sister Maria, the terrorists then proceeded to destroy the church and set fire to the sisters’ house and the priest’s house. They then set fire to the house where Sister Maria cared for orphaned and malnourished children.
As insurgents passed through Nantaca, they asked Silvano Valentim about his religion, to which he proudly affirmed his Christianity. The terrorists told him to sit down and he was beheaded, according to parishioners who spoke to ACI Africa.
When the Islamists moved to Tataulo, they forced the local population to split into groups of men and women, as well as Muslims and Christians.
When the Islamists arrived in Tataulo, they asked the local population to split into groups of men and women, as well as Muslims and Christians.
One parishioner said: “When the first three Christians bravely came forward, they were tied up and beheaded.”
“While they were killing the first, named Francisco Rimo, who was baptized and married in the Church with nine children, they placed the Book of the Liturgy (Masu Apwiya) on his chest. The second, known as Celestino Santos Mitupiya, was baptized, married in a church, father of seven and a catechist, and had the Bible placed on his chest. The third, named Silva António, was a catechumen and father of two children, who received the third stage catechism,” the parishioners said.
ACI Africa reports:
Speaking to bishops in Mozambique who visited the parish facing an uprising that began in 2018 in neighboring Cabo Delgado province, the parishioners, who withheld their names for security reasons, said Christians in Mozambique have suffered terrible persecution, and that the dead are the most. martyrs of the country.
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“Since these men and others we mentioned earlier were murdered out of hatred of the faith, we believe that they are our martyrs who did not refuse to testify to their faith and courageously gave their lives,” read the statement read by a parishioner to the bishops who visited that Catholic community on June 2.
