Liberia: investigation into deaths of five nuns
The head of Liberia's Roman Catholic Church has ordered an investigation into the slayings of five American nuns during the West African nation's brutal 1990s civil war. Sisters Mary Joel Kolmer, Barbara Ann Muttra, Agnes Mueller, Shirley Kolmer and Kathleen McGuire were killed in October 1992 when rebel fighters led by warlord Charles Taylor - now Liberia's president - were besieging the capital, Monrovia. The sisters were members of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ order, based in Ruma, Illinois, USA. Collectively, they had more than 50 years of service in Liberia, a nation founded by freed American slaves in 1847. At a commemorative service for the nuns on Sunday, Monrovia's Archbishop Michael Francis said he has named a three-member commission to investigate the killings. Findings will be forwarded to Rome, he said. The nuns "came to serve our people in the fields of education, health care and pastoral concerns," Francis said. "They were killed because they served their neighbours." source: Catholic Information Service Africa