Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vitória da Conquista (Fides Service) - The lifeless body of Bruno Baldacci, an Italian priest from the diocese of Las Spezia, was found on 30 March in the priest’s room at the parish of Nossa Senhora das Candeias of which he was parish priest, in the town of Vitória da Conquista, Bahia State (Brazil). Not finding the priest in church and getting no reply when they knocked on the door of his room the parish secretary and housekeeper entered and found the priest dead on the bed with clear signs of beating and the room in a shambles. Mgr Baldacci spent all his life as a priest in Brazil, where he went following a missionary Bishop and where he was ordained a priest. Recently he had been appointed Episcopal vicar for one of the diocese’s pastoral zones. Bishop Bassano Staffieri of the diocese of La Spezia issued a statement expressing deep sadness for the violent death of Mgr. Baldacci, also on the part of the Diocesan Mission Centre, collaborators and diocesan priests. Recalling that he had “had spent many years in Brazil as a missionary”, the Bishop entrusted the dead priest to the prayers of the people urging them to “follow his generous example of service of the poorest of the poor”. In Brazil the police have already arrested a suspect for the murder of Mgr. Baldacci, a young man of 22 who had known the missionary for some time and would appear to have an accomplice. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 31/3/2006 - righe 16, parole 244)
