A mass will be held later this month to remember a former Dundee priest kidnapped in Africa.
Father Jean Pierre Ndulani and two other priests disappeared on October 19 2012 after being reportedly kidnapped by rebel fighters in The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Father Ndulani had just returned to the country after spending six years serving at Dundee’s Wellburn House.
In February 2014, the priest’s body was reportedly discovered within a mass grave, but no official confirmation has ever been received.
On October 19, Dundee’s St Peter and Paul RC Church will hold a mass to commemorate Father Ndulani’s time in Dundee.
Father Ndulani, a member of the Assumptionists Church, travelled to Dundee to learn English and to act as chaplain for residents at the now closed Wellburn Care Home.
Chancellor Malcolm Veal, of the Diocese of Dunkeld, described the kidnapped priest as a “lovely and popular man”.
He said: “It (the commemorative mass) is a chance for everyone to get together and think of him and pray for him.”
Chancellor Veal added that there has never been “absolute proof” that Father Ndulani had been killed, but said the priest did suffer from health issues.
Father Ndulani acted as a chaplain to residents and The Little Sisters of the Poor at Wellburn Care Home for six years until travelling to Africa in 2012.
Former Dundee West MP Jim McGovern had campaigned for the release of the priest.
Mr McGovern contacted a host of politicians including Martin Kobler, UN special representative to the DRC and head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, as well as to British ambassador Diane Corner.
The former MP also penned a letter to Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s ambassador to the UN in New York to ask for greater efforts to be made to discover the whereabouts and condition of Father Ndulani and his colleagues.
In 2014, an email sent from Congo indicating Father Ndulani had been killed was sent to staff at Wellburn Care Home.
The email stated that Saambili Bamukoka, chief of the local Watalinga-Kamango, believed hostages, including Father Ndulani, had been killed by rebels in the aftermath of a DRC army victory over rebel groups.
Despite the claims, Father Ndulani’s body has never been discovered.
Five years on, Father Ndulani’s friends and former colleagues will now meet to pray for the vanished priest.
