Kolkata: I met Missionaries of Charity Sister Sally, the only nun survivor of the terrorist attack in Yemen, on April 21.
I had gone to the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata o hear the sisters’ confession. Learning that Sr Sally had just arrived, I asked if I could meet her. She came promptly and replied to all my questions.
She recounted the events of March 4, when Islamic militants stormed a home for the elderly that the Missionaries of Charity managed at Aden, the southern port city of Yemen.
As soon as she heard the sound of some attack by terrorists she had dialed the intercom number to alert Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was staying in their center, but got no reply.
About her own survival, she explained that when she noticed that those intruders had entered the convent, she got into a room where a big deep-freezer fridge was kept and she hid behind an open door opposite. She saw someone from the terrorists rushing in and lifting up the shutter of the fridge and looking in and going away. This happened three times while she stood praying behind the door. They were, evidently, suspecting that someone was hiding there. She could not see what was happening to the other sisters but could hear the cry and wailing and understood that they were being taken away or being killed.
When all the commotion and wailing stopped, she continued to stay behind the door praying and after two hours. She came out when the police arrived. One of the police from Aden took down from the wall two crucifixes and yelled, “This is the cause of all the trouble.”
She looked into the chapel and saw that the statue of Mother May was smashed into pieces. At the place where Fr. Uzhunnalil was sitting and praying, his breviary had fallen to ground and lay open, near a big crucifix that was broken. The hosts in the tabernacle were mostly consumed except for some that were diluted in the water and oil taken from the tabernacle lamp. One host was on the ground which she picked up at once. Sister Sally was soon taken by the police to the hospital.
When asked if she has sad memories and traumatic feelings disturbing her, she said that the two hours of prayer in danger had healed her and freed her from traumatic fear. But she does feel for the martyred Sisters, the staff and for the kidnapped priest.
About Fr. Uzhunnalil, she recalls that he would stay every day after Mass for two hours in the chapel praying. That day, the Mass was to be in the evening, being a retreat day and so they had Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the morning and he continued to stay in the chapel while the Sisters went to attend to the inmates and patients.
That morning during the talk he had spoken about being ready always for death. Sr. Sally the “holy priest” did not run for safety but stayed on to save the Blessed Sacrament from being desecrated.
After his church was burnt down by terrorists in September 2015, he had come to stay with the sisters in a different section of the convent and was their full-time chaplain and spiritual director. His spirit of prayer and sacrifice and everything about him testified to his sanctity. Sr. Sally believes strongly that he will be back soon, as all the sisters in Yemen are praying and holding a 13-hour adoration daily.
While she was speaking about him, I saw her emotion welling up and so I said, “Do not fear, God will glorify this saintly priest.”
(Salesian Father A.C.Jospeh is a doctor of Church Law from Salesian University Rome. He is the current director of the Calcutta Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service.)