Posted on 03/06/2007 12:55:22 PM PST by siunevada
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- An Irish priest who runs an AIDS hospice in South Africa has been shot twice in the chest by robbers in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.
Passionist Father Kieran Creagh, 44, was shot in the early morning hours March 1 when he answered the doorbell to his apartment in the back of Leratong Hospice, said Father Sikhalele Anthony Mdhluli, the superior of the Passionists in South Africa.
Father Creagh thought someone was summoning him to see a dying patient, but he opened the door to eight men, Father Mdhluli told Catholic News Service March 2.
"He refused to let them in and called for help, but the security guard at the hospice had been tied up," Father Mdhluli said.
The men fled with money from Father Creagh's safe as well as his mobile phone, television and other electronic equipment, he said.
Hospice staff called an ambulance, and Father Creagh is in intensive care in the hospital, Father Mdhluli said. Police are investigating the case, he added.
In 2003 Father Creagh made news when he became a clinical trial volunteer and was injected with a vaccine intended to prevent people from contracting HIV.
A year later, the hospice opened after Father Creagh raised money to fund it.
The attack is particularly sad "because of all Father Creagh does for poor people in the community," Father Mdhluli said.
South Africa is among the most crime-ridden countries in the world, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban has said that priests and nuns are among the many victims of crime.
"Criminals know we are soft targets because we are not going to be carrying guns," he told CNS in December.
In late February, South African Catholic officials said they want to help cut crime through church education programs and by leading research on the issue.
Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban has said that priests and nuns are among the many victims of crime.
"Criminals know we are soft targets because we are not going to be carrying guns," he told CNS in December.
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Perhaps a change in policy is in order, Excellency.
Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam ad preces nostras, quibus misericordiam tuam supplices deprecamur ut animam famuli tui Kieran, quam de hoc saeculo migrare iussisti, in pacis ac lucis regione constituas et Sanctroum tuorum iubeas esse consortem. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen
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