Papal Nuncio Shot and Killed in Burundi

AP ^

[TexKat]

Papal Nuncio Shot and Killed in Burundi

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican 's nuncio, or ambassador, in Burundi was shot and killed, the Vatican said Monday.

Monsignor Michael Courtney, 58, died while undergoing surgery, the Vatican's Misna missionary news agency said. A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the Irish-born prelate's death but would offer no further details until the nuncio's family had been informed.

Further details were not immediately available.

[ken5050]

Tom Clancy..fiction precedes fact...

[TexKat]

Ping

[B Knotts]

Another version with slightly different details:

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The papal nuncio in Burundi, Monsignor Michael Courtney, has been shot and killed, the Vatican has announced.

A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity Monday, confirmed the death but would offer no further details until the nuncio's family had been informed.

The Irish-born prelate was 58.

The Misna missionary news agency said in a statement that Courtney had died from a major hemorrhage while undergoing surgery at a hospital.

Further details were not immediately available.

[RiflemanSharpe]

May God have mercy on his soul. Amen.

[mware]

No word on who did the killing?????

[B Knotts]

No, but one version of the story I saw had this tacked on:

Burundi, a poor Central African nation, has been gripped by a civil war for more than ten years.

[TexKat]

You,ve got what I have so far. I have checked CNN,Fox, and MSNBC. So far this is it for this minute.

[Grampa Dave]

fyi

[leadpenny]

Last time the slaughter started after a plane crash. What will this bring?

[mware]

I was curious since the President of Italy had mentioned a possible attack on the Vatican.

[dts32041]

Yeah but will a war result?

[Puppage]

Burundi, a poor Central African nation

Poor, because the King stole all of the money.

This is the same country that swiped a few Texas models under the guise of modeling jobs & then kept them as "slaves" & prostitutes.

[B Knotts]

CIA - The World Factbook -- Burundi

[Cronos]

You're mixing Burundi AND BRUNEI!!! ;-P

[BlessedBeGod]

How horrible! Prayers for the Monsignor and his family.

[AmericanInTokyo]

"A report released Tuesday said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network has been largely dismantled, but the threat posed by extremist Muslim terrorists remains high and has grown harder to track. The report by the London-based Control Risks Group said the number of countries likely to pose a medium security risk to Western businesses operating in them was 71 for 2004, with 14 countries bumped up from low-risk. The group is a private consultancy that advises companies on security.....Many of this year's medium risk countries were in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Among the other nations moved from low to medium risk were Thailand, Bolivia and Morocco, according to the report, which was meant to aid companies in evaluating risks in different parts of the world....The number of countries where the risk was categorized as "extreme" increased from two this year to three for 2004. They were Burundi, Somalia and Liberia." -- USA Today 11/11/03

[Puppage]

Thank you, you're right. I sit corrected.

Pete

[NYer]

Monsignor Michael Aidan Courtney

On Sunday, November 12, 2000 in the Church of St. Mary of the Rosary, Nenagh, Rt. Rev. Mgr Michael Aidan Courtney was ordained Archbishop of Eanach Dúin and appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi. The ceremony was celebrated by His Eminence, Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, assisted by Most Reverend John Kirby, Bishop of Clonfert and Most Reverend William Walsh, Bishop of Killaloe.

Monsignor Michael Aidan Courtney was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary (in the diocese of Killaloe), in 1945, the youngest child of a family of seven of the late Dr. Louis and Elizabeth Courtney. He was educated in Nenagh Primary School, the Christian Brothers and Clongowes Wood College (1956-62). After studying economics and law at UCD for one year, he then transferred to Rome where he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1968 for the diocese of Clonfert.
After ordination, Michael served as curate in Tynagh parish, Co. Galway for five years (1969-73) while also acting as chaplain to Tynagh mines and teaching in St. Raphael's College, Loughrea. He served as curate in Woodford parish for two and a half years (1973-75). During all these seven years, he was also Diocesan Advisor on religious education, responsible for introducing into the diocese of Clonfert new insights into catechetics.
Returning to Rome in 1976 for post-graduate studies, after taking out a Licentiate in Canon Law and a Doctorate in Moral Theology, he entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy where he studied political science, international and diplomatic law, among other disciplines. In 1980, he was sent to the Pontifical Representation of the Holy See in South Africa and subsequently to Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia - the only Diplomatic Mission of the Holy See in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin wall - Cuba and Egypt. In 1987 he was awarded an M.A. in legal philosophy by N.U.I. Galway.
For the past five years, Michael has been the Special Envoy of the Holy See to the council of Europe and allied Institutions in Strasbourg. He has directed the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to this oldest of European Institutions (founded in 1949) where the Holy See participates in some sixty European committees of experts. He has also followed the plenary sessions of the European Parliament (the “15” of the European Union) and those of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (the “41” which comprises also the Russian Federation and the Ukraine). Strasbourg is also the seat of the European Court of Human Rights whose judgements and jurisprudence the Mission of the Holy See follows with careful attention. During this time, Monsignor Courtney has also been Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the International Commission of the Civil State and a member of the Governing Board of the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris.

* * * * *

May he rest in peace.

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list