Thousands of friends and sympathizers joined the four-kilometer funeral march from Kidapawan City Cathedral to the cemetery inside the Diocese of Kidapawan Compound on October 25, 2011. Fr. Pops was buried beside fellow Italian missionary Fr. Tulio Favali, who was killed by dreaded vigilante group Ilaga 26 years ago.
ARAKAN, North Cotabato (MindaNews/24 October) – In the last five years, slain Italian missionary Fr. Fausto Tentorio had been consistently writing emails to his family back in Leco, Italy every week.
His elder brother Felici, who arrived in this town on Saturday, told Mindanews that he usually wrote emails to Fr. Tentorio on Fridays or Saturdays. And the priest would usually reply on Mondays. But when Felici checked his emails on October 17, Monday, he was wondering why there was none from his brother.
Soon after Felici received a call from Fr. Giovanni Re, Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) regional superior, that Fr. Tentorio had been gunned down. Read More »
Gunman shot priest at close range, made sure he was dead
ARAKAN, North Cotabato – Silence filled the Our Mother of Perpetual Help parish as hundreds of people gathered and waited for Fr. Fausto Tentorio’s body to arrive from the nearby funeral parlor. Everyone looked shocked while some wept on the sidelines.
A crowd gathered when the blue casket arrived — albeit temporary pending the completion of the construction of the casket from the mahogany tree he planted (see other story) – and was positioned fronting the altar. When the lid of “Tatay Pops’” casket was finally opened at 5:15 p.m., the silence was broken by a chorus of wailing mourners — children, women and men, teachers and farmers, Lumads. (Read Full Story)
