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A then-and-now photograph of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil. The image was issued by the Diocese of Kohima on Wednesday.[/caption]
Dimapur, Jan. 19: The Diocese of Kohima has appealed to the faithful, along with the rest of the Christian community in India and people of goodwill, to keep Sunday 22, 2017, as a day of prayer for the safety and the liberation of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, a catholic priest stated to have been held captive militants in Yemen.
“Father Tom Uzhunnalil was seized on the 4th of March, 2016, after a militant group stormed into a home for the sick and elderly, run by the Blessed Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of the Charity in Aden, Yemen. Four Sisters and 12 lay people were killed in the attack on the facility, shocking the whole world,” a press release from the Diocese of Kohima stated on Wednesday.
“The whole Catholic Church and specially the Church in India is worried and concerned about the safety and where about of Fr. Tom,” the press release stated. “The Christian community once again appeals to the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Government of India to do everything possible to have this generous and selfless priest released.”
The Catholic Church has been anguished, and with supplication and prayer, the church has been awaiting the release of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil for the last 10 months, the press release stated.
“The Catholic Bishops’ Conference has been in constant touch with the Minister for External Affairs, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj and the foreign ministry to request them to expedite the release of our beloved Fr. Tom. The CBCI General Secretariat has also been in touch with Bishop Paul Hinder, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia, Yemen. It has been assured that he is alive and safe,” it stated.
The note also quoted a scripture passage: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14)
The Catholic Church has also appealed for prayers “for the conversion of those who are holding him captive and pray that God may give them the grace to realize the injustice of their acts, the statement from the CBCI says.”