Pope Mourns Five Clergy Members

Pope John Paul II prayed Wednesday for five members of the Roman Catholic clergy who were killed in recent days in Yemen, South Africa and the Congo Republic.

“My thoughts return now to the three missionary nuns of the [order] of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, killed some days ago in Yemen,” the pope said during his midweek public audience.

“And to Sister Theodelind Scherck of the congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Child, kidnapped and found dead in South Africa last Sunday, and to the Jesuit missionary, Father Michel Albecq, murdered the day before yesterday in the Republic of Congo.

“Let us pray to God for these generous witnesses of the Gospel and for all victims of violence which, unfortunately, continues to cause bloodshed in many regions of the world,” the pontiff said.

The three nuns killed in Yemen on Monday were allegedly shot by a suspected Islamic extremist while on their way to work.

Scherck, a 52-year-old German nun, was kidnapped in the South African town of Eshowe and police said she was apparently the victim of a robbery. On Wednesday, Associated Press reported that two men had been arrested as suspects.

Albecq, a French Jesuit, was found slain in his bed in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville on Monday. The motive for the killing is not known, but Reuters quoted L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, as saying initial indications suggested he was also the victim of a robbery.