Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Fides Service)- “Bishop Locati was a Fidei Donum missionary and he devoted his life to Borana and Turkana nomads” said Bishop Ambrogio Ravasi of Marsabit, northern Kenya, referring to Bishop Luigi Locati, Vicar Apostolic of Isiolo murdered in cold blood eysterday 14 July near the local pastoral centre. Bishop Locati, aged 77, who 40 years ago was sent on mission as a Fidei Donum missionary by the diocese of Vercelli (Italy) was about to retire having already served two years over the retirement age.
“Two days ago we had a meeting in Nairobi with the papal Nuncio” Bishop Ravasi told Fides. “Mgr Locati was happy because he had been told the name of his successor and so could go back to his Vicariate certain he would be leaving it in good hands”.
With regard to the motive for the brutal murder of the Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Ravasi formulated two ideas: “It could have been an act of personal revenge on the part of someone who disliked Mgr Locati. However I would not exclude a connection with the massacres in the village of Turbi”.
Turbi village in northern Kenya was where at least 77 people, many of them women and children, were massacred by a crowd of armed men on 12 July (see Fides 13 July 2005). The killings exacerbated tension between the Gabra and Borana peoples who often fight over pastures and water wells. “These two groups continue to fight” the Bishop said. “About a hundred people including at least 40 children have been killed in acts of retaliation on both sides in the past few days”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/7/2005 righe 23 parole 298)
