Mass for priest murdered in Mindanao to be held in Rome Oct 25

A Mass will be held for murdered missionary Fausto Tentorio, in Rome on October 25, the day he is to be buried in the Philippines. The Mass will be held at 7 p.m. at the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs) at Piazza della Repubblica. "The Mass in suffrage will coincide with the funeral mass for the murdered missionary that will be held on the exact same day in Kidapawan, Philippines," Catholic news site AsiaNews reported. AsiaNews said the PIME (Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere) or Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, to which Tentorio belonged, proposed the celebration in Rome in cooperation with the Diocesan Missionary Center and the Pontifical Missionary Union. Before the Mass, there will be a moment of testimony by Fr. Luciano Benedetti, PIME, a long-time collaborator of Tentorio. Benedetti was kidnapped in 1998 and had been held captive for nearly three months, also in Mindanao in the southern Philippines. An unidentified gunman shot Tentorio dead in the morning of Oct. 17, as he was about to leave Arakan, North Cotabato, for a meeting of priests in Kidapawan. As of Sunday, police have yet to name the killer and figure out the motive for the murder. "Many people believe... the priest was killed for his efforts to defend the rights of [indigenous people] of Mindanao," AsiaNews said. It added Tentorio worked for decades among the tribal groups of the diocese, even living with them. Tentorio is the third PIME missionary to be killed in Mindanao. In 1985, Fr. Tullio Favali was killed in Tulunan by a group of private armed guards. In 1992, Fr. Salvatore Carzedda, engaged in dialogue with Muslims, was killed in Zamboanga. In 2007, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi was kidnapped by a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but was released after two months of captivity. — LBG, GMA News