Mindanao: Catholics remember Fr Tentorio during Good Friday celebrations
Manila (AsiaNews) - "The memory of Fr Tentorio is still alive and well in the community. For this reason, today, on the occasion of Good Friday, the faithful remembered his sacrifice and witness of faith before celebrating the Easter of Resurrection, on Sunday," said Fr John Vettoretto, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), who spoke to AsiaNews about his confrere, Fr Fausto Tentorio, who was killed on 17 October 2011. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, where the Italian-born priest worked for many years, paid tribute "to his personal witness of faith", the result of a life spent in the service of the mission.
"During Holy Week, especially today Good Friday when we celebrate the death of Jesus on the cross, we wanted to remember Father Tentorio," said Fr Vettoretto. For many, "He is still a living presence," not only in Mindanao, but also in other parishes on the island and across the country, where it is the source of grace and conversions.
"People still talk about him with tears in their eyes," he noted. "But at Holy Week, people remember the significance of sacrifice, of the suffering that is redeemed on Easter Sunday."
Among the faithful, devotion is such that "even now (evening, Philippines time), people continue to cram the church," Fr Vettoretto said. "Even though villagers usually go home when it gets dark, this is a special time and the flow is constant. Some people are still doing the Stations of the Cross along the building's aisles."
"It is a time when the faith is strongly shared, a moment of deep personal experience" of Jesus' passion and death on the cross, helped this year by greater use of technology.
"We used power point displays and other means to illustrate" the event, the missionary said. Still, "although technology is now being used," what counts "is participation in the services and the deep connection to ritual ad symbols."
Fr Fausto Tentorio was the third PIME missionary killed in the Philippines, on the island of Mindanao. In 1985, private armed guards murdered Fr Tullio Favali in the Diocese of Kidapawan. In 1992, Fr Salvatore Carzedda, who was involved in interfaith dialogue with Muslims, was killed in Zamboanga.
Other priests were also abducted. Fr Luciano Benedetti was kidnapped by a Muslim group in 1998 but was released after two months. In 2007, Fr Giancarlo Bossi was kidnapped by a splinter group that had broken away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but he too was released after two months of captivity.
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