“After nine months of Father Pierluigi Maccalli’s absence, there was the first common moment of prayer with the Muslim leaders of the capital,” said Father Mauro Armanino, priest of the Society for African Missions, to Fides News Agency. The missionary organized a prayer meeting in Niamey, Niger’s capital, on the occasion of the ninth month since the abduction of his confrere, on September 18, 2018.
“During the prayer meeting in Niamey, in the chapel of Sainte Monique de la Francophonie, yesterday, June 17, saw the presence of the bishop of Niamey, a pastor and other members of the intra and interreligious dialogue,” Fr. Armanino said. “It was possible for an hour, to imagine that peace, the ‘conviviality of differences’, as Father Gigi called it, could make its way through the wounds of all. Muslims and Christians united in the pain of families for the many, too many faithful who have been killed or have disappeared.
“There are heavy absences, creative absences, fruitful absences, absences like wounds in which a different future can be sown. Just two days ago they attacked some churches in the economic capital of the country, Maradi. We continue to pray and hope for Father Gigi.”
