“I’m an elementary school teacher. Often, I’m sent to teach in mountain villages. There are terrorist groups living in these remote areas, who call themselves liberators of the people. It happened that I ran into some of these terrorist squads, but I managed to escape by finding a hiding place in some rocks.

But one time, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hide myself quickly enough. They caught me and brought me back to their camp. For days on end I was put through lengthy interrogations.

Despite the fear, I tried to answer as repectfully and truthfully. One of them in particular tried to indoctirnate me with their ideology. He wanted to convince me to espouse their cause. When he asked me what I thought, I didn’t want to comment. On the following day he repeated his speech. I objected that it was necessary to begin by changing ourselves if we wanted to transform the power structures that seem unjust to us.

‘What should change is the love we have for each other,’ I tried to explain. Perhaps my words touched something inside him, perhaps they made him recall things that he had once believed. The fact remains that after this interrogation they let me go.

Ever since that day I continued to pray for that man and his companions. Recently, to my surprise, I recognized him on television, as the news was given of a terrorist who had handed over his weapons to the military and left the terrorist group.”

Nelda, from the Philippines.

From: “Una buona notizia”, Ed. Città Nuova, Rome, pp. 56, 57.

A book that offers a positive contribution to the New Evangelization, in view of the October Synod. It contains 94 brief stories from around the world.