Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Fr. Fausto Tentorio's legacy, the PIME missionary killed 10 days ago and buried yesterday in Mindanao, "is the ability to withstand suffering with the strength of spirit, to overcome evil with good, practicing non-violence Gospel and love towards the enemy: this is what he taught the tribal manobo ". These are the weapons - Father Fausto used to say - "to tame the arrogance of the powerful, with dignity and intelligence": this is what his brother Fr. Luciamo Benedetti PIME said, who shared with the missionary killed thirty years of missionary experience on the island of Mindanao. Fr. Benedetti gave his testimony, collected by Fides, during the Holy Mass in memory of Fr. Fausto, celebrated yesterday, October 25, in the Basilica of St. Mary Queen of the Angels and Martyrs in Rome, in the presence of priests, nuns, missionaries, seminarians and many lay of the Filipino community.
Going through the biography of the missionary killed, Fr. Benedetti recalled Fr. Fausto’s committment "to restoring dignity and awareness in the tribal people, organizing base indigenous community, activating water development programs and education". But, in particular, "he taught them the use of the word to articulate their demands for freedom, respect, justice, peace and brotherhood", a precious gift that will remain for the future, which is "an obstacle to the interests of the powerful, especially on the land of the tribal people".
Don Gianni Cesena, responsible of "Missio Italy" and the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies - the main celebrant of the Eucharist - remarked that Fr. Fausto died a few days before World Mission Day, living as an authentic "witness of God", a word which, in its etymological sense, means "martyr". Fr. Tentorio lived and worked, added don Cesena, "in the style of Jesus Christ, which today continues to live and work in the world through missionaries and all his servants and witnesses". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 26/10/2011)
