Missionaries fear five nuns kidnapped in Angola

FIVE FRANCISCAN
Missionary of Mary Sisters disappeared last month from their mission in Cacolo. Angola, and may have been kidnapped by guerrillas, Sr Alma Dufault, superior general of the order, said last week.
The Franciscans learned that the missionaries were missing, when contacted by Japanese officials. The Japanese government became involved because the youngest of the five missionaries, Sr Maria Goretti Nakamura Jiroko, 3'7, is a citizen of Japan.
The four other missing missionaries are 56-year-old Sr Felisbela Martins and 41-year old Sr Maria Lourdes Nogueira, both of Portugal; 53-year-old Sr Dominina Maio of Spain; and 42-year-old Sr Graziella Sereno of Italy.
Details of the apparent kidnapping, in which two priests and one Religious brother, all members of the Society of the Divine Word, also reportedly were abducted, has come from the citizens of Cacolo, said Sr Dufault in an interview at her Rome headquarters.
She added that the bishop of the Angolan Diocese of Saurimo, in which the mission is located, and the Franciscan provincial superior in Angola had been refused entry to the Cacolo mission since December 18. The three missing Divine Word missionaries are Fr Miguel Yasis, 32, of the Philippines; Fr Krzystof Lukoszyk, 38, of Poland; and Br Durvalino Cantelli, 46, of Brazil, Divine Word officials said last week.
On December 18, the eight missionaries were taken by members of Unita, guerrilla group opposed to the Marxist government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Unita, after the Portuguese initials for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, has been fighting the government since 1975.
At the time of the reported kidnapping, Cacolo was occupied by Unita forces, the citizens said.
Sr Dufault said that she had expected the missionaries would be released shortly after Christmas following a Unita promise that it would release hostages as a goodwill Christmas measure.
Unita did not release the Franciscan nuns or Divine Word missionaries but did release five other nuns and a priest who had been kidnapped on September 5.
Their release was negotiated by the International Red Cross. The Franciscans also have sought International Red Cross assistance.
Sr Dufault said that her 9,000member order has 45 other members in Angola, in nine missions. There are no plans to withdraw from any of them, Sr Dufault said.