Bishop vows to remain in Tripoli with his flock

From Vatican Radio: 

The leader of the Catholic church in Libya is calling for dialogue and understanding in his violence wrought country.

Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, has vowed to stay in Libya with the few remaining Christians, witnesses of Jesus’s message of love.

Speaking in Italian to Vatican radio as the last foreign nationals scramble to flee Libya, Bishop Martinelli says he is not leaving his church and the few Christians left in Tripoli, “we are ready – he says – to bear witness to whom whom we are and to what we do according to the words of Christ”

Confirming that Jihadi militants are currently in Tripoli and that at any moment he and his parishioners could be taken by terrorists, Martinelli denounces  a lack of dialogue that goes back a long time and says that the International Community should take it upon itself to launch talks with this divided nation that needs – first of all – to find internal unity.

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And remember this shepherd and his flock in your prayers.