Three Italian nuns murdered in Burundi: officials

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Three Italian nuns were found murdered over the weekend in a parish in the north of Burundi's capital, officials and a priest in the African state said on Monday, in killings the Vatican said had "greatly saddened" Pope Francis. Police said two suspects had been detained for questioning. Father Mario Pulicini, responsible for the parish in a northern suburb of Bujumbura, named two of the nuns as Lucia Pulici, who was 75 and due to celebrate her birthday on Monday, and Olga Raschietti, 82. He said they were found dead in their dormitory on Sunday. The third nun, 79-year-old Bernadetta Boggian, was found early on Monday morning, he told Reuters, adding that the killings appeared to have happened at two separate times. "It is very difficult to know the reason behind the killing, but nothing can justify it," Father Mario said. Italy's Foreign Ministry also reported the three murders. "Pope Francis has learned with great sadness of the murder of three nuns," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a telegram sent on the pope's behalf. The pope offered condolences in the "tragic death" of the nuns to their families, the local parishioners and the sisters' order, the Xavarian Missionary Sisters of Mary. The Catholic diocese in Parma, Italy, said on its website that the death of Pulici and Raschietti appeared to have been "the tragic outcome of an armed robbery by a mentally unbalanced person". The two nuns had served in Burundi for seven years, after working several years in the east of another central African state, the Democratic Republic of Congo.