By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: Frustration and despair have gripped those praying for Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who on March 4 completes one year in the custody of Islamic militants in Yemen.
“I have given up hope for his release. It is so frustrating,” says a Catholic nun who has prayed for the 58-year-old priest. Requesting anonymity, she told Matters India that people have become skeptical about his release.
Father Uzhunnalil was abducted from a home for the elderly in Aden, a port city in southern Yemen. His abductors had killed 16 workers of the home, including four Missionaries of Charity nuns, before kidnapping the priest.
The Indian Church has been praying as well as pleading with the government for the priest’s release.
Meanwhile, flux boards, posters and banners have sprung up in Ramapuram, Father Uzhunnalil’s native village in Kerala, southern India, to remind people that the priest has been captivity for a year.
Special prayers are planned on March 4 at his home parish and ancestral home in Ramapuram, some 60 km southeast of Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.
The parish, St Augustine’s Forane Church Ramapuram, is a few kilometers from the home of Fr Uzhunnalil’s home.
Parish priest Father George Njarakunnel recalled that Father Uzhunnalil had come to say Goodbye before he left home last time.
The priest rubbished the reports of some federal ministers maintaining that Father Uzhunnalil had gone to Yemen despite being prohibited from going there. “I am sure that he is alive. I had information from reliable sources that he is in a camp with many captives and a ransom money is demanded for his release,” the parish priest told The Times of India.
Earlier on March 2, the Kerala government asked the federal government to speed up efforts for the Uzhunnalil’s release.
State Minister for law A K Balan, replying to a submission in the assembly on behalf of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, said the government had already asked the federal government to speed up efforts to rescue the priest.
“It has been confirmed that he was in the captivity of terrorists, but there is no information about the place where he is kept,” Balan said.
Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani, who brought the matter in the House, said an all-party delegation from Kerala should go to Delhi to exert pressure on the federal government for Father Uzhunnalil’s release. Mani suggested that the federal government seek the help of United Nations for the priest’s rescue. The assembly should pass a resolution asking the federal government to view the matter very seriously, he said.
Father Uzhunnalil is a member of the Bangalore Salesian Province, which has prepared a prayer meeting for his release and to keep attention focused on his situation.
“We are deeply distressed by the delay in assuring his release,” the province said. They will organized the prayer meeting at 5.00 p.m. on 4 March at the Ernakulam Town Hall in collaboration with the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council.
The program includes prayer and a public meeting. Prominent Church and political leaders are expected at the program.