» 09/23/2012 11:57 ITALY - PHILIPPINES PIME missionary Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, former kidnapping victim in Philippines, has died He was 62 years old. From 10 June to 19 July 2007 he was seized by a group of Muslim guerrillas an offshoot from the MILF. He lived as a missionary in the Philippines for about 32 years. His testimony in front of 300 thousand young people in Loreto. His meeting with Benedict XVI.
Rome (AsiaNews) -
Fr Giancarlo
Bossi, the PIME missionary (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions), who in
2007 was kidnapped in Mindanao, died at 3am this morning in the Humanitas clinic
in Rozzano sul Naviglio (Milan).
For
over a year he had struggled with lung cancer and his health had weakened more
and more.
Fr. Bossi,
the "gentle giant" for his friends given his athletic and stout stature,
rose to notoriety in Italy and throughout the world when he was
kidnapped by a group of Muslim militants in the Philippines, 10 June 2007. Moments
of prayer and fasting as well as government pleas for his release spread all
over Italy and the world. Pope
Benedict XVI made
an appeal to the kidnappers and prayed for him. On
19 July he was freed, thanks to the collaboration of the Italian and Philippine
government.
He
returned to Italy after his abduction, where he had the opportunity to meet
Benedict XVI during a gathering between the Pope with the Italian youth in
Loreto. Here
he spoke about his almost 40 days with his captors, Muslims who had broken off from
the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), whom he has always defended, saying
that "they treated me well and I prayed for them
":" During the 40 days of my desert in the forest - he told the 300
thousand young people - I felt renewed. My prayer became more vital and fervent.
My availability to God more incisive. When faced with great difficulty, then
you really experience the
tenderness of God "(cf. 01/09/2007 Father
Bossi talks about God's tenderness during his days of captivity). Recalling
his meeting with the pope, he speaks of the "thrill of a son who finds his
father."
In
January 2008, he returned to the Philippines and wanted to return to Payao
(Mindanao), where he had been kidnapped, but the bishops stopped him and he
settled in Paranaque (Manila) for a year, before moving on to a mission of in
Western Mindoro.
Fr. Bossi
was born in Abbiategrasso (Milan), 19 February 1950. Had
entered PIME in Genoa in 1973, a late vocation. He
took his perpetual vow on February 3, 1978 and was ordained a priest March 18,
1978 by Msgr. Aristide. Pirovano. Destined
for the Philippines, he spent - with some short interludes in Italy - about 32
years in his adopted home.
