An Italian priest was snatched by heavily armed men Sunday morning while on his way to celebrate Mass in a village in Zamboanga Sibugay. Initial reports reaching Camp Crame said Fr. John Carlo Bossi was snatched by bonnet wearing men (!) in Barangay Bulawan in Payao town. The provincial police chief, Senior Supt. Francisco Cristobal Jr., said the 57-year-old Bossi, who hails from Milan, is a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions or PIME and was assigned in Payao on April 1. PIME is an international apostolic life society of priests, brothers and lay people that dedicate their lives to mission among the non-Christian community all over the globe.
Cristobal said Bossi was riding a motorcycle to BulaÂwan from the two proper when he was blocked by at least 10 men. At gunpoint he was dragged away by the group. Cristobal said he had ordered checkpoints set to intercept the priestÂ’s abductors. Police and military officials said no demands have been received from the group. The Agence France-Presse said police identified the leader of armed gunmen as Aka Kedie, a renegade leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF denied it had played any part in the kidnapping, but said it was prepared to help the government
Bossi is the third Italian priest to have been kidnapped in Mindanao in the past 10 years. In 1998, Muslim rebels snatched Fr. Luciano Benedetti in Zamboanga del Norte and held him captive for 10 weeks before freeing in exchange for unknown amount. Three years later, the Pentagon gang abducted Fr. Giuseppi Pierantoni of Bologna while he was holding Mass in a parish church in Dimataling, ZamboÂanga del Sur. Pierantoni escaped after six months in captivity.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu condemned Bossi’s kidnapping as un-Islamic, adding that Kedie’s group has long ceased to obey the MILF command structure. “That group is not MILF. We express our readiness to extend whatever assistance we can give to the Philippine authorities,” Kabalu said.
Shortly after Bossi was kidnapped, Pope Benedict XVI condemned kidnappings in Colombia and elsewhere as “despicable acts.” “Unfortunately, I am frequently requested to intercede for people, among them Catholic priests, held captive for various reasons in various parts of the world,” the Pope told thousands of pilgrims in Saint Peter’s Square during his Angelus message on Sunday.