“I
cannot leave the people of Sudan because I love them”: This is what Sister
Veronika Racková, doctor and missionary, said about herself before South
Sudanese soldiers shot her at a checkpoint on May 16, 2016.
Ten
years after her death on May 20, 2016, in a hospital in Nairobi, the memory of
her witness remains vivid, especially in her homeland. Many hope that the
beatification process for the Slovak nun will begin soon.
Veronika
Racková was born in 1958 in Bánov, a town then part of Czechoslovakia. She was
a doctor and a member of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the
Servants of the Holy Spirit. As a missionary and doctor, she initially worked
in Ghana and later in Sudan, the part of the country that declared its
independence during her time as a missionary, giving rise to South Sudan. The
Slovakian nun headed St. Bakhita’s Medical Center in Yei. According to news
reported at the time by Fides, Sister Veronika received an urgent emergency
call around midnight on May 16 regarding a woman with complications during
childbirth. The nun accompanied the patient by ambulance to Harvester’s Health
Center, a facility better equipped to care for mothers and newborns. On the way
back, she was shot by armed men, soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army
(SPLA, the former guerrilla movement that seized power after the country's
independence proclaimed in 2011). Sister Veronika was immediately taken to a
hospital in Nairobi, where she died of her injuries several days later.
…As
the security situation in the country deteriorated, the religious order was
asked whether they wished to return home. In her last interview, Sister
Veronika recounted, “We considered it, each nun individually and then as a
community, and we decided to stay because we felt that we were in the right
place at the right time and that God was with us. These people didn’t need us
so much for our work, but rather to be able to pray and be together.”
…At
the memorial service last Sunday, Father Peter Čieško of the parish of Bánov
reminded those present that the residents of Sister Veronika's hometown were
rightly proud of their fellow citizen and that looking to Sister Veronika's
life offered great encouragement to people not only to live for themselves, but
also to be ready to offer their help to others. Article by Bohumil Petrík courtesy of FIDES News Agency.
