Father Pier Luiggi Maccali and Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, both kidnapped and freed in Mali, received the Blessed Pauline Jaricot award for the example of their lives during the missions.
Newsroom (28/10/2022 6:45 PM, Gaudium Press) The “Blessed Pauline Jaricot” award was created this year by the Pontifical Mission Societies of Spain (POM). The award is a recognition for missionaries who have given great testimony of their lives through their missions.
The first presentation of the award took place last October 22 in Madrid at the Palacio de Cristal de Arganzuela. The winners of this first edition were the Italian priest and missionary Pier Luiggi Maccali and the Colombian religious and missionary Gloria Cecilia Narváez.
Their missionary testimony is similar, since both were kidnapped for a long time by jihadist groups in Mali.
Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez
“I want to thank God, who gave me the opportunity to be reborn and to return to the mission,” expressed Sister Gloria Cecilia when she received the award. The Colombian religious was a missionary in Mali, when she was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists and remained 5 years in captivity.
About the kidnapping years, she commented that they were the years in which she felt God’s presence the most, because “there is no cross without Christ”. The religious was grateful for all the help provided by the Pontifical Missionary Works in the missions that are carried out in Africa.
Father Pier Luiggi Maccalli
Father Pier Luiggi Maccalli dedicated the award to the people of Bomoanga and Niger and invited everyone present to pray for peace in the world. On world peace, Father Pier Luiggi commented that the years of captivity allowed him to “put focus on a region of Africa where there are many forgotten wars.
The priest recalled that shortly before his release, Pope Francis had written the encyclical Fratelli Tutti. Inspired, the missionary decided to address the head of the jihadists and tell him, “may God make us understand, someday, that we are all brothers.”
Ana Álvarez de Lara
Mrs. Ana Álvarez de Lara, former president of “United Hands and Mission America”, was the third recipient of the award. Ana Álvarez de Lara was grateful for the award and said that she considers herself a missionary at a distance, helping all those who can continue with the mission.
José María Calderón, director of POM in Spain, explained that the Blessed Pauline Jaricot award is offered to missionaries who have given a great testimony of their lives, and the Blessed Paolo Manna award is offered to people and institutions that collaborate with the spread of missionary work in the Church.
Meaning of the Statuette
The Pauline Jaricot prize consists of a statuette. It is a crab holding a cross. The meaning goes back to St. Francis Xavier, patron saint of the missions.
The ship on which the Jesuit saint was sailing was under storm on the high seas. He then threw his crucifix into the sea, asking for tranquility, which followed. When he landed on the beach, a crab pulled the crucifix from the sea and handed it to the holy missionary. (FM)
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Compiled by Florence MacDonald
