The family of kidnapped Jesuit priest, Father Paolo Dall’Oglio thanked Pope Francis for his appeal during Sunday’s Angelus address.
Following the recitation of the Angelus prayer with thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father recalled two year anniversary of Fr. Dall’Oglio’s abduction.
The Italian priest, who worked in Syria for the past 30 years, was kidnapped in July 2013 by the so-called Islamic State. Father Dall’Oglio engaged in Christian-Muslim dialogue, notably through the monastic community he founded north of Damascus and was vocal against government repression.
”I make a heartfelt and urgent appeal for the freedom of this esteemed religious man,” the Pope said on Sunday.
In an interview with Vatican Radio on Monday, Fr. Dall’Oglio’s sister, Francesca, thanked the Pope for his words.
“In the name of our family, I would like to express all our gratitude to the Pope for the appeal he gave yesterday at the Angelus for the liberation of our brother Paolo, since his kidnapping in Syria two years ago,” she said. “I would like to highlight that it was for us a source of great consolation and that same time of emotion and hope.”
Regarding the Pope’s remembrance of others who have been kidnapped, including two Syrian bishops, Francesca Dall’Oglio said that her family “is close to the sufferings of the families of those kidnapped in Syria.
