RSSPope Benedict XVI has called for the release of all hostages held in conflict zones, including an Italian Red Cross worker abducted by armed men in the southern Philippines.
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Eugenio Vagni. Photo: Courtesy |
Eugenio Vagni, 62, was kidnapped on Jan. 15 in Sulu and remains a captive of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group. Co-workers Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines and Andreas Notter of Switzerland, who were kidnapped with him, have been freed.
The Pope made his appeal at the end of his weekly public audience at St. Peter´s Square on June 24, as he commemorated the 150th anniversary of what has become the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“I take advantage of this moment to ask for the release of all people held hostage in areas of conflict and, once again, for the release of Eugenio Vagni,” the Pope told thousands of people, including pilgrims from the Philippines. In March he had appealed for the release of all three hostages.
The distraught Vagni family has welcomed his renewed appeal. “Once again the Pope interprets our pain and gives us hope,” relatives of the kidnapped man told “Avvenire,” the Italian Catholic daily.
At the same time as the Pope made his appeal, Khwuan Phungket, Vagni´s 36-year-old Thai wife, issued an open letter asking people “to find a solution to this tragic situation of my husband.” She called on the Italian government and parliament to make “an urgent intervention” to gain her husband´s release.
“Every day that passes is more difficult for my family,” she said. “Our two children need him.” She said she last spoke to Vagni by phone on June 2, “but since then I do not know if he is alive or dead,” Khwuan revealed.
“There´s no more time to lose. The condition of my husband´s health is not good. He needs medical care,” she stressed.
The Pope first appealed for Vagni´s release on March 30, when the lives of the three kidnapped Red Cross workers seemed in imminent danger as the army closed in on the kidnappers´ lair.
At that time he appealed for “humanitarian sense and reason” to “prevail over violence and threat,” and he called on the Philippine authorities to “favor every peaceful solution of this dramatic event.”
His recent appeal for Vagni´s release recalled how exactly 150 years ago an idea was born “for a great movement to assist the victims of war.”
Since then, he added, “the values of universality, neutrality and independence of service have aroused the support of millions of volunteers all over the world, creating an important bulwark of humanity and solidarity in numerous contexts of war and conflict, and in many emergency situations.”
The Pope also expressed hope that young people would particularly “make a concrete commitment” to this “most worthy” cause.
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