{"id":25107,"date":"2017-10-17T09:01:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T09:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=25107"},"modified":"2017-10-17T09:01:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T09:01:55","slug":"nigeria-italian-missionary-priest-abducted-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/10\/17\/nigeria-italian-missionary-priest-abducted-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"NIGERIA &#8211;  Italian missionary priest abducted &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>NIGERIA<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Italian missionary priest abducted<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">An Italian priest of the Diocese of Rome who was working in Nigeria as a missionary was abducted last Thursday. \u00a0Don Maurizio Pall\u00f9, 63, was heading to Benin City, in the south of the country, along with four other people. They were stopped by an armed group that stole their belongings and seized only the Italian missionary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On Friday afternoon the papal spokesman, American Greg Burke, said on Twitter that Pope Francis has been informed of the kidnapping of Fr Maurizio and \u201cis praying for him.\u201d\u00a0 The Diocese of Rome expressed \u201capprehension and worry\u201d for the priest\u2019s safety and said the church \u201cwas united in prayer\u201d for his liberation. &#8220;We hope that Maurizio Pall\u00f9 can be released soon,&#8221; said the spokesperson for the Vicariate of Rome, Fr Walter Insero.<strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At the moment, no more information is available. No demand for ransom has been received.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Prosecutors are investigating the abduction as a terrorist act. Italian papers are reporting that Fr Maurizio might have been kidnapped by members of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. However, unlike the Muslim-majority north of the country, where Boko Haram threatens the Christian community, the southeast of Nigeria is predominantly Christian. \u00a0However, armed gangs roam the region, which is plagued by government corruption and violence, and kidnappings for ransom are common<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fr Maurizio was born in Florence on 18 Oct 1954. In 1971 he became involved in the Neocatecumenal Way, studied history and was a lay missionary for 11 years. After his father\u2019s death in 1988, he entered the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Rome. Following his ordination, he worked as a priest in two Rome parishes and then was sent to Holland, where he was a parish priest in Haarlem. Three years ago, he returned to Africa and worked in the Nigerian Archdiocese of Abuja. Fr Maurizio is an &#8220;itinerant priest&#8221; of the Nazareth Family Foundation for travelling evangelization but belongs to the Diocese of Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fr Maurizio is not the first priest to have been abducted this year on the outskirts of Benin City. On 18 April Father Samuel Okwuidegbe, a 50-year-old Nigerian Jesuit, was also abducted. On 3 Sep Fr Cyriacus Onunkwo\u00a0was found murdered\u00a0in the town of Orlu, which is in Imo state.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NIGERIA Italian missionary priest abducted \u00a0 An Italian priest of the Diocese of Rome who was working in Nigeria as a missionary was abducted last Thursday. \u00a0Don Maurizio Pall\u00f9, 63, was heading to Benin City, in the south of the country, along with four other people. They were stopped by an armed group that stole&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NIGERIA - Italian missionary priest abducted - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/10\/17\/nigeria-italian-missionary-priest-abducted-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NIGERIA - Italian missionary priest abducted - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NIGERIA Italian missionary priest abducted \u00a0 An Italian priest of the Diocese of Rome who was working in Nigeria as a missionary was abducted last Thursday. \u00a0Don Maurizio Pall\u00f9, 63, was heading to Benin City, in the south of the country, along with four other people. 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