Rome, Italy, Feb 6, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Upon receiving news from the murder of Fr. Andrea Santoro, the Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini declared that these events are the "new link in the long chain of priests from the Diocese of Rome who have shed their blood for the Lord,” and assured that the Diocese is grateful to the Lord for his “brilliant testimony with the humble certainty that from it, new Christian life will rise.”
The Diocese of Rome, from which the missionary sent to Turkey as a “Fidei Donum” priest was sent to, conceded in the interview in which he assured the faithful of Rome “who loved and appreciated intensely Fr. Andrea, former pastor of the Roman parish of Jesus of Nazareth and later of Saint Fabian and Venancio, who were deeply touched by the this sad news, that they elevate their prayers for Fr. Andrea, for his elderly mother, for his sisters and his family.”
“With this tragic event, a new link in the long chain of roman priests who have shed their blood for the Lord. Fr. Andrea had wished and asked intensely to leave Rome for Anatolia, to be in that land as a silent and praying witness of Jesus Christ, with respect to local laws,” we can read in the communiqué released by the Fides agency.
The note continues as follows, “the Diocese of Rome, amid this pain, is proud of him and grateful to the Lord for his “brilliant testimony with the humble certainty that from it, new Christian life will rise.”
Fr. Andrea Santoro was born in Priverno in 1945. He was ordained for the diocese of Rome in 1970. He exercised his pastoral work in various parishes and was at the head of the parishes Jesus of Nazareth in the Collatino and Saint Fabian and Venancioin Appio Tuscolano.
In 2000, Fr. Andrea left to be a “Fidei Donum” missionary in Turkey, establishing in Trabzon on the Black Sea. He was entrusted with the Sancta Maria Kilisesi parish. In 2003, he founded the association “Window for the Middle East,” dedicated to the study, prayer and dialogue to facilitate the encounter between the Western world and the Middle East.
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