“Let us pray, too, for all impacted by the actions of this group, particularly our sisters who witnessed the vandalism and kidnapping,” Lacour said. “We are in touch with governmental leaders who have pledged to keep us informed as they learn more.”
The Marianites of Holy Cross, founded in 1838 by Blessed Father Basil Moreau, claims about 140 members worldwide, about 40 of whom are based in and around New Orleans. Sister Tennyson was the order’s international leader until she stepped down in 2012.
Sister Tennyson told the Clarion Herald that after she visited Burkina Faso as congregational leader, Bishop Thomas Kaboré of Kaya asked four Marianites to come to his diocese to help start a parish and build a medical center. Sister Tennyson joined the other sisters at the missionary outpost after stepping down as head of the congregation.
“’You will come here, and God will take care of the rest,’” Tennyson recalled the bishop saying to her.
“I almost got this sense that Father Moreau [the founder of the Marianites] was speaking to us.”
She told the paper in 2016 that she wanted to stay in Burkina Faso as long as her health and her religious community would allow, saying that she had “never felt so alive in my vocation.” The tiny parish church is vibrant, and according to one report, the clinic is so vital to the area that people walk 50 miles for treatment there.
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