(ZENIT News / Rome, 28.02.2023).- On March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has invited two Nigerian Christian women to come to Italy. Maria Joseph, 19, and Janada Marcus, 22, were victims in the recent past of the ferocity of the Boko Haram Islamist terrorists, group responsible for the death of more than 75,000 Nigerians over the past 13 years.
Both victims were helped by priests and specialists in the Traumatology Center of Maiduguri, capital of the state of Borno, in north-eastern Nigeria. The Center is run by the local diocese and was built with the help of benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need. Victims of extremist violence are treated at the Center by a team of professionals.
The objective of ACN’s initiative, entitled “March 8 Also Listens to Your Cries,” is to bring their dramatic testimony to Italian institutions and to public opinion, given that their stories do not usually emerge in the public debate, thus remaining relegated to a mortifying forgetfulness, adding the pain of indifference to the violence already suffered.
Pope Francis will greet Maria Joseph and Janada Marcus at the end of the General Audience on Wednesday, March 8. The two women will also be received by the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Lorenzo Fontana, by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and by Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani. On March 9 and 10, Maria and Janada will be received by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, His Holiness’ Secretary of State, and by diplomats accredited to the Holy See.
