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Fri 26 Aug, 2016 09:44 am
Two Catholic nuns found murdered in Mississippi home
Published August 25, 2016 ·
FoxNews.com
Two nuns who worked as nurses and helped the poor in rural Mississippi were found murdered in their home Thursday, and there were signs of a break-in and their vehicle was missing, according to officials.
The nuns were identified as Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard said.
It was too early to say how the nuns died, but it doesn't appear that they were shot, according to Durant Assistant Police Chief James Lee. Their bodies were taken to a state crime lab for autopsies.
The two women, both nurse practitioners, were found Thursday morning when they didn't report to work at a nearby hospital.
Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, said there were signs of a break-in at the home and the nuns' vehicle is missing. She said the sisters worked at the Lexington Medical Clinic, located 10 miles away from their home in Durant, one of the poorest areas in the state.
Authorities didn't release a motive and it wasn't clear if the nuns' religious work had anything to do with the slayings.
"I have an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach," said Lee, the assistant police chief, who is Catholic.
Father Greg Plata, who oversees a small Catholic church the sisters attended in the Mississippi Delta, told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper the killings were "so senseless. "
"These were the two sweetest sisters you could imagine," he told the newspaper.
Durant police and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
Merrill moved to Mississippi from Massachusetts in 1981 and believed her calling was to stay in the Deep South, according to a 2010 article in The Journey, a publication of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
When asked about her ministry, Merrill was humble
These women represent the best of the best, as far as I'm concerned. Not only devoted to a strict spiritual life, these nuns were devoted to the care of some of the poorest of our American citizens....individuals deeply in need of both hope and care.
Nurses are a special breed. But these nuns, who devoted their professional lives to the nursing care of the poor in rural Mississippi are without any doubt the best of the very best.
This is heartbreaking. Paula Merrill was from my home town of Stoneham.
She has family here.
It could have happened anywhere; however, my gut says I don't belong in Mississippi.
@George,
Rest in Peace to the two nuns.
They sound quite loved, and quite loving.
@George,
I saw her sister on TV the other night.
@Foofie,
Being a New Yorker, you might have trouble adapting to the life style in Mississippi.
I heard on TV this morning, that the killer(S) has been found. No further info at this time.
@George,
George wrote:
Meaning what, exactly?
Meaning exactly what I said. You don't like my comment?
@Miller,
Miller wrote:
Being a New Yorker, you might have trouble adapting to the life style in Mississippi.
I always ask the Socratic question: Do I belong here? I do not push my presence on people that find me persona non grata.
Do you believe those women did not belong where they were?
@George,
George wrote:
Do you believe those women did not belong where they were?
What I believe about the world-wide Catholic Church would not be complimentary to many, so I choose not to respond to your question.
However, I will say that German Jews that survived WWII, mostly had the good sense to not stay in Germany, even after the Nazis were out of power. Interpret that as you choose; it is not my charge to give you a Yiddisha kup.
@Foofie,
Thank you for your answer.
It's what I expected from you.
As nuns and nurse practitioners, Paula and Margaret were exactly where
they should be: where they were most needed, where they could do the
most good.
@George,
George wrote:
As nuns and nurse practitioners, Paula and Margaret were exactly where
they should be: where they were most needed, where they could do the
most good.
That could be what German Jews thought of their presence in Weimar Germany?
@Foofie,
That they were needed there and that they could do the most good there?
That their presence in Weimar Germany was a mission of mercy?
Perhaps some did. I haven't the slightest idea.
The simple fact of the matter is: Holmes County, Mississippi is not Weimar
Germany. Not even close.
@Foofie,
Foofie wrote:
George wrote:
Do you believe those women did not belong where they were?
What I believe about the world-wide Catholic Church would not be complimentary to many, so I choose not to respond to your question.
However, I will say that German Jews that survived WWII, mostly had the good sense to not stay in Germany, even after the Nazis were out of power. Interpret that as you choose; it is not my charge to give you a Yiddisha kup.
I recently read in the NYTimes, that German Jews, living in the UK, now want to return to Germany. Is this because those wanting to return to Germany are mainly from a younger generation?
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