By Sr. Teresa A
Kolkata: Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who spent 18 months in captivity in Yemen, visited Kolkata on Feb 17.
Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta, five Missionary of Charity Sisters, three Salesians Sisters and three Salesian priests received the 59-year-old priest at the airport.
Father Uzhunnalil has series of speaking engagements in Kolkata, known as the City of Joy.
One of the places he visited on the first day was the Auxilium Convent to meet his aunt Sister Mary George. He arrived there escorted by Archbishop D’Souza.
A song of love and welcome bursts forth from the sisters present to greet what one nun said was “the epitome of God’s immense love.”
Sister George said a prayer after the nuns sang the hymn, “Give Thanks.”
Father Uzhunnalil, who was released from the Islamic militants’ captivity on September 12, 2017, currently stays at the headquarters of the Salesians’ Bangalore province, Karnataka, southern India.
He was abducted on March 4, 2016, from a Missionaries of Charity home for the aged at Aden, Yemen. The militants gunned down 16 workers of the home, including four nuns.