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Posted on 02/06/2006 7:51:46 AM PST by NYer
| TURKEY - VATICAN | ||
| Nuncio in Ankara: Fr Andrea Santoro, a martyr for the third millennium | ||
| by Bernardo Cervellera | ||
| Fundamentalism among assassin's motives: the killer shouted "Allah akhbar, Allah is great!" But it could also be revenge by mafia controlling prostitution. | ||
Ankara (AsiaNews) - Grief, but also "recognition", in the thoughts of the Vatican's nuncio in Ankara for the sacrifice of Fr Andrea Santoro, a "fidei donum" priest killed this afternoon in the Saint Mary Church of Trebizond (Trabzon in Turkish), nothern Turkey. Contacted by telephone, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello, who took up his post as nuncio just over a month ago, told AsiaNews: "This is a source of great sorrow, but also a great recognition for this priest from the diocese of Rome who had committed himself to missionary work. During the Great Jubilee we often had martyrdom mentioned as the Church's keynote. Fr Andrea is a new martyr for this millennium. Let us hope that his blood is the seed for new Christians. Fr Andrea was a missionary just like Saint Paul who says: My duty is to evangelize." Archbishop Lucibella learned of Fr Andrea's assassination from Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, just minutes after the incident. According to initial reconstructions, Fr Andrea had, like every other afternoon, opened his church. A young man entered and fired two shots at his back. Exiting the church, the young man shouted something. According to a young Turk who was near the priest, the killer yelled "Allah akbar, Allah is great". For the moment, suspicions are that motives involve fundamentalism and indignation over the Mohammad caricatures that have created much discontent and many protests in Turkey. Bishop Padovese also said that the priest had been engaged in efforts to recuperate young women who worked the streets. It could also be that he was killed as revenge on the part of mafia controlling prostitution. Archbishop Lucibello said that the Holy See has been informed, as has the Italian government. A foreign ministry task force is already at work, as is Rome's police headquarters |
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Bishop Padovese: Fr Andrea killed, while Islam is in revolt, “not incidental”
| TURKEY | |
| Bishop Padovese: Fr Andrea killed, while Islam is in revolt, “not incidental” | |
The Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia tends to exclude motives involving criminals dealing in prostitution. |
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Rome (AsiaNews) – It appears increasingly probable that Fr Andrea Santoro’s assassination was related to Islamic fundamentalism: Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia is convinced of this. Contacted by telephone, he told AsiaNews that the fact that Fr Santoro was killed while the entire Islamic world is being rocked by protests over the Mohammad caricatures “does not seem incidental.”
“This morning,” he related, “I went to the morgue. Fr Andrea was killed with two shots: after the first, he was able to shout out to a young man who was in the Church with him to take cover, the second shot killed him.”
Is there any news on the killing?
It seems very likely that it was not a young man. Both the young man in the church and the volunteer from Rome who helps out in the parish have spoken of an adult. Fr Andrea was kneeling, the person who shot did not even need to enter, he stayed at the church’s door, at a distance of 4 or 5 metres. He took aim and fired.
Are there any hypotheses on the killer’s motives? Theories have been advanced on a link with protests over Mohammad caricature or on an act of vengeance by criminals due to Fr Andrea’s efforts to help prostitutes.
I would exclude the second hypothesis. Fr Andrea was a moderate even in this and I don’t think his work was at such a level to provoke someone to eliminate him. One could perhaps have expected some kind of threat from criminals.
So you think there can be a connection with the protests over the Mohammad caricatures?
The fact that the he was killed at this point in time does not seem incidental to me; otherwise, it could also have happened some other time. Besides, the atmosphere here too is heated, not to say over-heated. And here too, fanatical Islamics can be found.
| 6 February, 2006 | |
| VATICAN - TURKEY | |
| Pope: May Fr Santoro “become the seed of hope for building authentic brotherhood” | |
Benedict XVI sends telegrams of condolences to Cardinal Vicar Camillo Ruini and Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia. |
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Vatican City (AsiaNews) – May Fr Andrea Santoro’s blood, spilt in the “courageous testimony of the Gospel of charity”, “become seeds of hope for building true brotherhood among peoples”: this is the hope expressed by Benedict XVI in a telegram of condolences sent to Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his Vicar for Rome. The Pope also expressed “steadfast disapproval for all forms of violence” in another message addressed to the Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, Bishop Luigi Padovese.
“Profoundly stricken” by the death of Fr Santoro, “killed at Trabson in Turkey while he was absorbed in prayer,” Benedict XVI expressed to the Cardinal Vicar his “heartfelt sharing in the grief of the entire Church of Rome for the grave loss of such an esteemed and zealous Fidei donum priest and, in the hope,” the Pope continued, “ that the blood he spilt becomes the seed of hope for building true brotherhood among peoples, I raise fervid prayers of suffrage for this courageous witness of the Gospel of charity and impart my heartfelt and comforting apostolic blessing to his relatives, in particular his elderly mother, so deeply tried, and those who lament his violent death.”
In the telegram to Bishop Padovese, Benedict XVI wrote that Fr Andrea Santoro “carried out his ministry in Turkey with generosity and apostolic zeal in favour of the Gospel and in service to the needy and the outcast” and that he wished to send “in this sorrowful moment the expression of my particular closeness to the local Christian community, reaffirming my steadfast disapproval of all forms of violence.”
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Rest in Peace in Heaven with our Dear Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for evermore, dear Father Andrea.
No kidding, huh?
BTTT
It's terrible that this priest was killed, and sad that so early into the new milenium we already have matryrs being persecuted and killed for their faith.
Apostates from their own Lutheran church publish cartoons ridiculing the hyetsrical and violent elements of Islam, so the Islamicists go hysterical and kill a Catholic priest in the name of "justice."
Im reminding myself that there were several people involved with the cartoons, and I've only heard one of them, and his views may very well be not at all representative... And I should clarify ai don't mean to imply any condemnation of their actions in publishing the cartoons at all, merely to emphasize that they were not in any way published to further the cause of Lutheranism, Catholicism, or Christianity in general.
Shooting a priest in the back. So much for the "courage" of Islamist whackos.
I hope that death will find ME in an attitude of prayer. God bless this good priest.
Evidently having watched plenteous reruns of I Love Lucy, someone chose not to translate this as revolting.
I am so sorry for your loss. May his memory be eternal.
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