Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Cotabato (Agenzia Fides) - “We are deeply grieved to announce the death of missionary Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI and we ask for prayers for the repose of his soul and for God's consolation for his family and the people in Tabawan whom he loved and served”: this was part of a message sent to Fides by Fr. Ramon Bernabe, Provincial Superior of the Missionary Oblates of Immaculate Mary of Mindanao, Sulu and Tawi Tawi, including the small island of Tabawan. The area is part of the Autonomous Muslim Region where there is a population of about 6 million Muslims.
Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, aged 55, who had been working in Tabawan for ten years was shot dead yesterday 15 January. The priest was in charge of a small mission station and a community of about 30 Catholics involved in programmes of basic instruction and inter-religious dialogue. He was also head of the local Notre Dame Catholic School for Christian and Muslim children.
According to the police, a gang of at least 10 gun men broke into the mission chapel where Fr. Jesus was saying his rosary at 8-30pm. When the intruders attempted to abduct the priest and a school teacher layman Omar Taup also present and the priest reacted saying he wanted to stay with his community, the gunmen opened fire and shot the priest dead. Witnesses say the gunmen stole a computer and other objects from the mission besides taking the teacher as a hostage. The police are searching the forests in the interior of the island to find the attackers.
The local Bishops' Conference expressed its grief and asked for prayers and said the priest, who had received threats in recent months from dissident Islamic groups connected with Abu Sayyaf, refused to move about with guardsmen.
The news of the murder of Fr. Reynaldo met with shock and grief. Bishop Orlando Quevedo OMI of the diocese of Cotabato, said “the death of Fr. Reynaldo is a great loss for the work of peacebuilding in the southern Philippines”. His confreres say the missionary “defended the poor and spoke out clearly against terrorism and corruption”. The killing has been condemned by local Muslim leaders. In Zamboanga the Muslim-Christian Silsilah Community expressed its grief for the death of the priest who often took part in seminars held at Silsilah, where he lived a “life of dialogue” among the Tawi Tawi Muslims. “The death of any person is sad, but it is all the more when the person is a priest who was a man of peace and dedicated his life to serving others”, said Silsilah.
The body of Fr. Reynaldo will be taken to Cotabato and buried in the OMI cemetery at Tamontaka. Fr. Ramon recalled that Fr Jesus is the third OMI priest to be killed in the southern Philippines after: Bishop Benjamin De Jesus, shot dead in 1997 in Jolo and Fr. Benjie Inocencio, killed in 2000. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/1/2008 righe 26 parole 268)
