Pray and invoke intercession of 4 nuns killed in Yemen — CBCP

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called on Filipino Catholics to pray for the Missionaries of Charity nuns killed in Yemen.

"The Sisters were defenseless.  They were neither combatants, nor were they acting in behalf of any government," the bishops said in the statement signed by CBCP President Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

"They were serving God’s people, and were fulfilling the precepts of charity, living the lives of consecrated persons, when they were brutally cut down," they added.

The Missionaries of Charity is a religious congregation for women that was founded by Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata, who will be canonized this month.

The CBCP said all attacks on Christians by extremists should be labelled as genocide because "the assault on Christians is born out of hatred for their religion and is by no means sporadic and isolated."

"More than enough Christian blood has been shed in this troubled part of the world to make it clear that the assailants are determined to decimate Christian populations and to make living conditions next to impossible, if not impossible for them," they added.

The bishops are asking Filipino Catholics to pray for Sisters Anselm from India, Margherite from Rwanda, Reginette from Rwanda and Judith from Kenya, as well as to invoke their prayerful intercession.

"For our faith teaches us that those who lay down their lives for the faith immediately share in the reward of the just," the bishops said. — BAP, GMA News