Zamboanga (AsiaNews) – Mgr Angel N. Lagdameo, archbishop of Jalo and chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), told the Italian government envoy, MP Margherita Boniver, that the CBCP would help “in our own way” to resolve the abduction of 57-year old Fr Giancarlo Bossi, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) who was taken in Payao on June 10.
During the visit, Archbishop Lagdameo said that Mgr Fernando Capalla, archbishop of Davao, is his point man. He is “a key-figure in the Bishops-Ulama Forum” and “is working with his Muslim counterparts to help resolve the abduction.”
Whilst rumours are rampant in the Philippines about search operations for the missionary, regularly denied by his fellow missionaries, PIME has decided to organise an international day of prayer for his release on July 10, exactly a month to the day of his abduction.
On the invitation of the Pontifical Missionary Union, cloistered nuns in Italy will join the prayer.
In a letter to the women religious, PIME national secretary Fr Ciro Biondi, wrote: “Knowing that you will join us in prayer . . . makes us strong, hopeful that the Lord will touch the hearts of those who are holding him, certainly only for the wrong reasons; keeping him away from where the Lord Jesus sent him.”