4. From the desk of Andrea Jura
CHAPTER 4
From the desk of Andrea Jura
FORT STEWART, GEORGIA
THREE DAYS LATER
Dear Father Savio,
I just learned that you’ve been freed!
I first wrote you a note when you were taken captive. It’s tough for me to believe that it’s been two years. That you were forgotten for two WHOLE years. That you suffered for TWO YEARS.
Your plight hurts my heart but, more than that, my soul burns in outrage for you.
How could the Church leave you there to rot?
I saw the state of you on the news.
You’re a broken man.
THEY broke you.
The captors, yes, but THEM. The higher-ups. The bishops. The archbishops. The Pope.
You weren’t protected. They failed you and it makes me hate them on your behalf.
I asked the local priest if there was a way to send you a letter, and he said he’d pass it on… Whether it makes it into your hands or not, I’ll never know.
I wrote you a note when you were first taken. You can find it enclosed—yes, I kept it. I had nowhere to send it so of course, I did. I’m in college now so I came home. I have the worst headache too but I still looked through my stuff tonight because I knew I had kept it and wanted you to have it ASAP.
After rereading it, I’m cringing, but you deserve to see the words. That ‘something bad’ I did was nothing in comparison to what I’d do to avenge YOU.
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry they let you down.
It seems to me that every time I see you, be it in an article or on TV, something shifts in my life. I have to believe that’s for a reason.
The first time I ‘met’ you, I was trying to save a boy from overdosing. (You’ll see that for yourself when you read my note.) Today, I’m trying to save a girl from being abused by her father and the news broke about your liberation.
I’m starting to believe you are a sign that I’m on the right path, but that is a conversation for another time.
Tonight, I pray that you eat well. That you breathe easier. That you sleep and begin the path to healing yourself. You deserve to find peace.
Andrea Jura