New details on abduction of Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

The attack in which Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson was abducted from her convent in Burkina Faso, West Africa, the morning of April 5 was conducted by at least 10 armed men, the Marianites of Holy Cross said today in an electronic newsletter.

See video reflections from Marianite Sisters Judy Gomila and Marjorie Hebert

The congregation said Sister Suellen, the former international congregational leader for the Marianites of Holy Cross and native of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, was sleeping when the men burst into the convent, ransacked the living quarters and kidnapped her, leaving behind two other Marianite sisters and two young women who also live in the convent.

“There were about 10 men who came during the night while the sisters were sleeping,” Marianite Sister Ann Lacour, congregational leader, said in the e-bulletin April 6. “They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are ruined.”

Sister Ann, who currently is attending a congregational meeting in Le Mans, France, said she was told by the two younger women living at the convent that Sister Suellen was taken from her bed with “no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc.”

The other two Marianites at the convent in Yalgo – Sister Pauline Drouin, a Canadian, and Sister Pascaline Tougma, a Burkinabé – were not abducted and did not see many of the details.

“They say the two young women who live with them saw what happened and told them (the details),” Sister Ann said. “They think there were more men on the road. They have heard nothing from or about Suellen since she was taken.”

Sister Ann said Sister Pauline and Sister Pascaline have been relocated to Kaya, Burkina Faso, about 70 miles from Yalgo.

“We let them know that the U.S. embassy as well as the vicar general of Le Mans (who spent time as a missionary) strongly urged them to leave Burkina Faso and go to France,” Sister Ann said. “They were not open to leaving the country without Suellen – they want to stay and wait for her and seem confident that she will be released.”

Sister Ann said the Marianites have contacted both the U.S. Embassy in Burkina Faso and the U.S. State Department, and “they have assured us that this is a high priority case for them.” The congregation also has contacted the apostolic nuncios to the U.S., Burkina Faso and France as well as the Vatican’s secretary of state and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the U.S.

“They are all doing what they can,” Sister Ann said.

Sister Ann Lacour, U.S. congregational leader for the Marianites of Holy Cross, based in Covington, Louisiana, told Catholic News Service that the 83-year-old nun was kidnapped “because she's American."

The order has not received any demands for ransom, Sister Lacour told Catholic News Service late April 5. She said the order was working with U.S. Embassy officials in Burkina Faso.

Sister Lacour said she had spoken to Sisters Tougma and Dourin, who indicated the kidnappers were looking for money and medicine. "The only one kidnapped was the American," she said.

Yalgo is in northern Burkina Faso, not far from the border with Mali. Reliefweb reports that in the last two years, Burkina Faso's northern and eastern regions have seen a "sharp deterioration in the security situation ... due to the presence of nonstate armed groups."

Sister Ann, who has visited the Marianites in the country, said Sister Suellen was serving as a pastoral minister, "to wipe tears, give hugs, import a smile. She really did support the people that work in the clinic that the parish runs." People walked for miles to get help from the clinic, she said.

She added that Sister Suellen is in good medical health.

"I don't know if any of us are prepared to be kidnapped," she added.

Sister Ann, the current Marianite congregational leader, said she and other Marianites were "first and foremost praying for Sister Suellen’s safety and for her release from her captives."

"Let us pray, too, for all impacted by the actions of this group, particularly our sisters who witnessed the vandalism and kidnapping," Sister Ann said. "We are in touch with governmental leaders who have pledged to keep us informed as they learn more.”

Bishop Theophile Nare of the Kaya Diocese, said Sister Suellen, 83, was abducted overnight between April 4 and 5 and taken to an unknown destination by Unidentified Armed Men (UAM).

The bishop said the kidnappers vandalized the convent where Sister Suellen lived in community with other religious women before taking her to the unknown destination.

“Until the search for her is successful, we remain in communion of prayer for the release of Sister Suellen Tennyson,” Bishop Nare wrote in a statement released to media in Africa and Europe.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond joined in the appeal of the safe return of Sister Suellen, who, among her local assignments, was executive director of the Office of Religious from 1996-2007 .

“For many years, Sister Suellen ministered to the people of the Archdiocese of New Orleans with great joy. Today, we express our sadness and shock at her abduction and offer our prayers for her safe return. Please join me in praying for Sister Suellen, the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross, and all who know and love her during this difficult time.”

According to media reports, Burkina Faso, one of the 10 countries in the Sahel region of Africa, has been facing rampant violence occasioned by political crises, which offer a fertile ground for the proliferation of extremist groups.

The city of Yalgo borders the province of Soum, where armed groups are particularly active. In this area, attacks against civilians have increased according to reports.

Sister Suellen's last visit to New Orleans was in 2019. Three years, earlier, in 2016, she reflected on her vocation in an interview with the Clarion Herald.

When she was a teenager living in Kenner, her dad, a building engineer at Krauss Department Store at Canal Street, would drive her into New Orleans early on school mornings.

"I would sit in his car outside Krauss and read or do my homework, and then I'd walk to Our Lady of Guadalupe for Mass and then take the bus to Holy Angels (Academy)," Sister Suellen said.

After Suellen graduated from Holy Angels, she felt called to enter the Marianites of Holy Cross, whose teaching style and service to the poor she always had admired. Her religious life as a teacher and congregational leader led to many experiences of serving God through serving others, including several years as executive director of religious in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

But it wasn't until she stepped down as worldwide congregational leader of the Marianites in 2012 that she began seriously to consider a calling within her calling.

One year earlier, as congregational leader, she had visited Burkina Faso, a landlocked country north of Ghana in Western Africa, and heard God whispering.

At the time, when she listened as Bishop Thomas Kaboré of the Kaya Diocese spoke to her, it was almost as though she was having a conversation with Blessed Father Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross' priests, sisters and brothers in the 1800s.

"Father Moreau always told his people to go where they were needed and that God would provide," Sister Suellen said. "When we first talked to Bishop Thomas, we told him we were a small congregation that was growing older and had only a few sisters who were available to come to his diocese. He said, 'You will come here, and God will take care of the rest.' I almost got this sense that Father Moreau was speaking to us."

From that conversation, the Marianites launched their first ministry in recent history inside a developing nation.

Bishop Thomas asked the four Marianite nuns – two from Louisiana, one from Canada and one from Burkina Faso – to come to Yalgo to help start a parish and build a medical center. Three of the sisters have been there since 2011, and Sister Suellen joined them in 2013.

Life has been different. Life has been great.

"It's really taught me things about myself that I never knew," said Sister Suellen. "I've had to learn patience and to be flexible. Sometimes the way I would want to do something is not the way it has to be done. There's also a saying in French about 'tomorrow.' Tomorrow doesn't necessarily mean tomorrow. It means, 'I've finished my work here on the building today, but I'll try to be back tomorrow if everything goes as it should. Sometimes the person may not have the right materials to come back to finish the job. You have to understand that."

Electricity is spotty, supplied both by solar panels on building roofs and by diesel-powered generators.

"But we know it's coming," Sister Suellen said. "You can see the electric poles and wires not far from town, and they're a lot closer than they used to be."

Tomorrow.

One of the wonderful things about ministering to the people of Burkina Faso is their immense faith and joy of living. At Mass, the tiny parish church of the Holy Family is packed and rocking, with the beat of drums supporting a burst of singing and dancing among the congregation, which spills out to the  side yards.

"When one of the little children has to leave the church, it's so neat to see someone on the outside taking care of him," Sister Suellen said. "In a way, it's everyone's child."

Almost in the same way that she had to trek from Kenner to the Ninth Ward for high school each day, women ride miles on bicycles or walk miles on foot to get to Mass. "We might say, 'Oh, that's too far for us to get to Mass,'" Sister Suellen said. "Not in Yalgo."

The medical center, which recently hired a doctor, is growing. Women come there to have their babies, and there are services for pediatrics, family medicine, ophthalmology and nutrition education. The center has helped reduce the tragedy of malnutrition.

When the electric poles actually are hooked up in town, the medical center will be able to provide surgeries.

Sister Suellen said in 2016 that she wanted to stay in Burkina Faso as long as her health and her religious community would allow.

"I have never felt so alive in my vocation," she said.

Catholic News Service contributed to this report.

pfinney@clarionherald.org