Kolkata: Almost seven months after being kidnapped in Yemen, Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil remains missing, but a cardinal involved in efforts to get him released expresses the hope about the priest’s timely release.
“We do not know anything more from Yemen. They do not put out any information on the kidnapped priest,” Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church, said in Kolkata, where he had come to pay tribute to St Teresa of Calcutta.
Fr Uzhunnalil’s family belongs to the Church the cardinal heads.
The prelate said he was in touch with Abu Dhabi-based Bishop Paul Hinder of Middle East as well as Fr Uzhunnalil’s provincial superior in Bangalore, southern India.
Throwing further light on the kidnapped priest the cardinal said, “If they had killed him, that [news] would have been out.”
The Salesian congregation assigned four priests from its Bangalore province to Yemen as chaplains in 1986 after Mother Teresa appealed to its Rector Major. The world renowned nun made the appeal after addressing the congregation’s general chapter in Rome.
The Salesians were the only Catholic priests working in Yemen stationed at Sana’a, the capital; Aden, Hodeida and Taiz.
Fr. Uzhunnalil was abducted on March 4, when four gunmen attacked a Missionaries of Charity retirement home in Aden, killing 16 people, including four Missionary of Charity sisters.
The attacks are thought to have been perpetrated by Islamist terrorists, though no group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
Both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have a presence in the area.
Rumors began spreading during Holy Week that Fr. Uzhunnalil was to be crucified on Good Friday, although those reports were later retracted.
Fr. Uzhunnalil’s Salesian community and bishop of the local Church dismissed the rumors as false information, warning that spreading such rumors was irresponsible and could be harmful.
Indian security officials are involved in negotiations for his release. The specifics of the ongoing investigation and negotiations have not been divulged so as to protect the life of the priest.