“I made a rosary out of cloth”: Italian Missionary Priest Reflects on Two-Year Detention in Mali

Father Pier Luigi Maccalli, an Italian missionary priest, reflected on his two-year detention in Mali during an interview with Aid to the Church in Need. Maccalli, a member of the Society of African Missions, was kidnapped by armed men on September 17, 2018, while working at Bomoanga Parish in the Archdiocese of Niamey, Niger. The captors, suspected jihadist fighters linked to al-Qaeda, transported him across the border into Mali, where he remained held until his release on October 8, 2020.

Maccalli told the interviewers that he used prayer and a rosary he made from cloth to maintain a connection to his family and the communities he served. He described his experience as a shift from physical missionary work to a spiritual one, stating that he learned to serve with his heart rather than his feet. Before his assignment in the isolated Bomoanga area, he served as a missionary in Ivory Coast for several years.