{"id":35937,"date":"2020-10-14T10:49:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T10:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=35937"},"modified":"2020-10-14T10:49:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T10:49:13","slug":"mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/","title":{"rendered":"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Whereabouts of Sister Gloria Narvaez is still unknown, however <\/em><\/strong><em><br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nThe Italian SMA missionary Father Pier Luigi Maccalli has finally been set free, on Tuesday, 6 October, more than two years after he was originally abducted in the diocese of Niamey in Niger, on 17 February 2018. At the same time three other hostages were also freed: the French development aid worker Sophie P\u00e9tronin, the Italian Nicola Chiacchio and the Malian opposition politician Soumaila Ciss\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n\u201cThousands of ACN\u2019s benefactors throughout the world have been praying for the liberation of Father Pier Luigi Maccalli and waiting to hear news of him\u201d, commented Mr Thomas Heine-Geldern, the executive president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The news of his release and that of the other hostages gives us reason to hope that the Colombian religious Sister Gloria Narvaez Argoti may also be among them. Sadly, however, \u201cwe have so far had no confirmation of this\u201d, Mr Heine-Geldern continued, \u201cIn our great joy at the liberation of Father Maccalli we remain concerned however for the fate of this courageous religious sister, who was abducted by jihadist groups in Mali over three years and eight months ago. But we are not giving up hope\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The most recent news of Sister Gloria dates back to a video of September 2018 in which the French hostage Sophie Petronin is also seen, known in France as the \u201clast French hostage in the world\u201d and who is due to arrive back in France today (Friday 9 October). Her release had raised hopes that Sister Gloria might also be among the liberated hostages. In the 2018 video Sister Gloria is seen saying that she is \u201cpacking her things every day\u201d while awaiting her release. Since then there has been no trace of her, however.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the most recent report published by ACN International on Religious Freedom Worldwide, which covers the period from June 2016 to June 2018, the security situation in Mali is described as \u201cstill very unstable\u201d and it is noted that several Islamist terrorist groups are operating or seeking to extend their influence in the country, among them the self-proclaimed \u201cIslamic State\u201d or \u201cAl Qaeda in the Maghreb\u201d (AQIM)\u201d. The report also emphasises that the \u201cfragile security situation\u201d in the country is \u201ccausing problems for religious minorities which, because of their small numbers, are among the most endangered groups in society\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/donate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35565 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-300x44.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-300x44.jpg 300w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-580x85.jpg 580w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button-600x88.jpg 600w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Support-button.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whereabouts of Sister Gloria Narvaez is still unknown, however The Italian SMA missionary Father Pier Luigi Maccalli has finally been set free, on Tuesday, 6 October, more than two years after he was originally abducted in the diocese of Niamey in Niger, on 17 February 2018. At the same time three other hostages were also&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35937","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>MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists - 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\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whereabouts of Sister Gloria Narvaez is still unknown, however The Italian SMA missionary Father Pier Luigi Maccalli has finally been set free, on Tuesday, 6 October, more than two years after he was originally abducted in the diocese of Niamey in Niger, on 17 February 2018. At the same time three other hostages were also...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-14T10:49:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"784\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"956\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/\",\"name\":\"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-14T10:49:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-14T10:49:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg\",\"width\":784,\"height\":956},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"Whereabouts of Sister Gloria Narvaez is still unknown, however The Italian SMA missionary Father Pier Luigi Maccalli has finally been set free, on Tuesday, 6 October, more than two years after he was originally abducted in the diocese of Niamey in Niger, on 17 February 2018. At the same time three other hostages were also...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2020-10-14T10:49:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":784,"height":956,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/","name":"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg","datePublished":"2020-10-14T10:49:13+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-14T10:49:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Fr-Pier.jpg","width":784,"height":956},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/10\/14\/mali-father-pier-luigi-maccalli-finally-set-free-after-two-years-in-the-hands-of-jihadists\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MALI: Father Pier Luigi Maccalli finally set free after two years in the hands of jihadists"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35939,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35937\/revisions\/35939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}