PIME missionary dead in 1985 in the Philippines, killed by paramilitary militia, another one slaughtered in the Muslim territory of Mindanao, many more threatened, some forced to return to Italy to avoid being killed.
It is a difficult outcome the one regarding Italian missionaries in the Philippines, where Father Fausto Tentorio was killed.
A “horrible, unacceptable crime” the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola commented with “great sorrow”.
The violations of freedom of religion and worship affect 5 billion people in the world. Although to different degrees, depending on local situations in different countries, forms of mind conditioning if not actual violence affect 70% of the world population.
These data emerge from a 2010 report on freedom of religion in the world prepared by Acs (Help to the Church that Suffers).
Just in China and India alone there are nearly 2.5 billion people in danger due to reasons of religion or worship.
“The report highlights an alarming situation in different Countries both in respect to religious freedom and freedom of expression of one’s religious beliefs. Severe limitations are often encountered in the practice of one’s faith, both in private and in public, as well as in the opportunity to spread one’s belief.”
Precisely “the work of missionaries whose life in the Island of Mindanao is always precarious and in danger,” reminds father Piero Gheddo of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME).
Right there in Arakan, the valley where father Fausto Tentorio was killed, in the 1986 paramilitary militia assassinated another PIME missionary, Tullio Favali of Modena.
“In 1992,” father Gheddo added, “Islamic terrorists murdered father Salvatore Carzedda in the Muslim area of Mindanao. Other PIME missionaries in the Philippines, after having received repeated death threats, were forced to return to Italy, including among others, Father Paolo Nicelli and father Sebastiano D’Ambra.”