Fr Daniel Swartz, chaplain to the US Marines, has safely left Afghanistan amid increasing Taliban control in the state following a period in which he provided pastoral services to Catholic Marines deployed in the country.
Fr Swartz’s departure coincides with the US’ formal withdrawal of all troops from the country and the evacuation of Afghanistan’s only priest and nuns to Rome.
Operations to remove clergy from the region have intensified as Taliban-led forces begin to deliberate on the formation of a Sharia-backed government.
Head of the Jesuit Mission in Afghanistan, Fr Jerome Sequeira, previously expressed his concerns surrounding the logistics of evacuating so many from the area as he stated that, “all flights are cancelled and it all depends on the agreement between [the United Nations] bodies and the Taliban”.