‘Spiritually transformative’: Nun recalls Mali captivity in new religious freedom report

ACI Africa, Jun 28, 2023 / 10:00 am

Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti, a missionary who was abducted in Mali in February 2017 and held for nearly five years, has described the years she spent with her abductors as “spiritually transformative” and a blessing in her life.

The Colombian nun, who was kidnapped in Southern Mali by what was later discovered to be a jihadi group, narrated her experience in the foreword of the 2023 edition of the Religious Freedom in the World Report, which Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) published on June 22.

“Undoubtedly, it was one of the most spiritually transformative experiences of my life. Today, looking back, even though it sounds paradoxical, it was perhaps one of the greatest blessings that God has given me,” Narváez Argoti said in the report on Christian persecution, which painted a grim picture of Africa and Asia.

She said that writing the foreword of the report was an opportunity to speak out against religious intolerance and Christian persecution.

“I am aware of the importance of speaking about this fundamental right — religious liberty — to ensure that it is protected, especially within a polarized society where attempts are made to sweep under the carpet the abuses committed against the freedom to profess religious beliefs,” Narváez Argoti said.

Narváez Argoti, a member of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, added that her mission in Mali and her experience with jihadists in the West African country had taught her the importance of love and respect regardless of one’s religious affiliation.

She narrated having shared her captivity with two women: a Muslim and a Protestant, and added: “I learned that if we love, accept, and respect one another, we can live as brothers and sisters.”

Accepting one another, she clarified, does not mean giving up one’s beliefs, “for true respect is about listening, welcoming, and acknowledging everyone for who they are.”

Narváez Argoti began to work in Mali in 2010, reaching out mainly to women in the mostly Muslim country.

In the foreword, she shared that it was her congregation’s fraternal nature that made the people of Mali so fond of the missionaries. 

“The Muslims of the community in which we served admired us for two things: constant prayers and open fraternity. They always saw us united and praying, working for others, with kindness, regardless of discomforts or precarious conditions, with a permanent smile and neighborliness. Differences in ethnicity, class, or religion made no difference to us; we treated everyone with love,” she said.

She recounted experiencing the same love in Muslim families who invited the missionaries on important occasions such as the celebrations at the end of Ramadan.

“We were invited to celebrate in their [Muslim] homes, and we were always treated with great kindness,” Narváez Argoti recalled. “There were no closed doors or walls. At the same time, this provided an opportunity to evangelize in our own way, for we told them that our work and fraternal relationship with different people was not the work of this or that sister but that everything was done thanks to God, who is the giver of all blessings.”

To the kidnappers, fraternal love was a language they never understood, Narváez Argoti said.

She said that at her kidnapping, the fraternity she had felt in her missionary work vanished.

“Freedom, not only physical liberty, which allowed me to move without restrictions, became only a word, an immense longing. As time went by — and perhaps because of what I had previously experienced in continuous, loving, respectful, and kind contact with people of every religious denomination and all conditions — I realized that I had not only lost my own freedom but also my religious liberty,” Narváez Argoti narrated.

She added that on numerous instances she was singled out, beaten, and insulted for professing her Catholic faith.

The nun underwent adverse circumstances, including bad weather, daily abuse, humiliation, and deprivation of food and water.

In all these circumstances, her faith remained unmoved, she testified: “I never — not once — failed to thank God for allowing me to wake up and be alive amid all the difficulties and dangers: How could I not praise you, bless you and thank you, my God? For you have filled me with peace in the face of insults and mistreatment!”

Narváez Argoti was released from her captivity on Oct. 9, 2021, and about eight months after being set free she still prayed for the conversion of the souls of her captors.

This story was originally published on ACI Africa, CNA’s partner news agency in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.