Posted on 12/29/2003 9:13:41 AM PST by 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.
Monday, December 29, 2003 Posted: 1724 GMT ( 1:24 AM HKT)
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VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The papal nuncio in Burundi, Monsignor Michael Courtney, was shot and killed in the East African nation, the Vatican said.
A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Monday confirmed the death but would offer no 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 was shot in the head, the shoulder and a limb in Minago, 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) south of the Burundi's capital, Bujumbura. It described the circumstances of the attack as "still not completely clear."
The agency said Courtney had been traveling by car with three other passengers when gunfire from a nearby hill sprayed the vehicle. In addition to Courtney, a priest was also lightly injured, while the driver and a hitchhiker were unharmed.
Bullets also struck the wheels of the car, slowing the passage to the capital and medical help there, Misna said. Courtney died from a major hemorrhage while undergoing surgery at a hospital, it said.
Further details were not immediately available.
"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.
We wish him every blessing and happiness in his challenging mission in Burundi."
Which would make sense. e.g., you're going to have a pretty bad threat level in the middle of a civil war.
Not sure if it's what the others are referring to, but in the set up for The Dragon and the Bear a Chinese Baptist Minister (trained at Oral Roberts or Bob Jones, I believe) and the newly arrived Papal Nuncio to Beijing go to a Chinese hospital to stop one of the minister's parishoners from being forced to undergo an unwanted abortion (while she's in the process of delivering the unlicensed child). Chinese police shoot both clerics for interfering. It sets off the chain of events that leads to a big war.
Dec. 29 — BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - The Vatican's ambassador to Burundi was shot dead on Monday in an attack which Burundi's army blamed on Hutu rebel fighters who have refused to join a peace process.
Army officials in the tiny African country said papal nuncio Michael Courtney was ambushed by National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels and shot three times. He later died in hospital. "The nuncio was ambushed this afternoon by elements of the FNL near the Minago locality 25 miles south of Bujumbura," army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema said.
It is estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Burundi's decade-old civil war, in which rebels of the majority Hutu ethnic group are fighting to end the political dominance of the Tutsi minority.
The main rebel group in Burundi, the FDD (Forces for the Defense of Democracy), has signed a peace deal with the government, which has awarded top ministerial posts to rebel leaders.
But the FNL has refused to negotiate with the government and has continued to fight it. African leaders have given the FNL three months to join peace talks or be branded as outcasts.
That's fiction based on fact...
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