The mother of a priest slain in Turkey has said publicly that she forgives the man who murdered her son.
Fr. Andrea Santoro was killed February 5 while kneeling and praying in his Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, a city of 200,000 situated on the Black Sea. His killer, 16-year-old high school student Ouzhan Akdin, yelled “Allahu akbar” or “Allah is great” after firing two rounds from a nine millimeter handgun into Fr. Santoro’s back.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, said during Fr. Santoro’s funeral that he planned to open the priest’s cause for canonization. The cardinal also said, “With all her heart the mother of Father Andrea forgives the person who armed himself to kill her son, and she feels great pain for him because he, too, is a son of the one God who is love.”
Fr. Santoro was a diocesan priest of Rome who had requested to work as a missionary in Turkey, which he had done for six years. Deal Hudson described Fr. Santoro as “a man deeply committed to fostering understanding between the east and west, as well as peace among religions,” according to his email column, The Window. “He also served the poor and was notably active in the fight against sex trafficking of Christian women, a practice common in the region,” he added.
“Television cameras recording the funeral panned to where the mother of the slain priest sat and showed her nodding at the Cardinal’s words,” Hudson added. “A member of the Curia told me that it was an extremely powerful moment of forgiveness, one which deeply touched all who saw it on Italian television.”
Speaking to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the boy’s father Hikmet Akdin, 58, said that he had heard of Mrs. Santoro’s forgiveness. “I know, and ever since I heard those words I have a desire in my heart. I want to save enough money to go to Italy and kiss that woman’s hands as a sign of gratitude. Please tell her how much I appreciate her goodness, which has touched me. I want to embrace her. She’s a courageous woman, and I’m sure is an excellent mother. I’ll kiss her hands, if it’s the last act of my life.”
A volunteer in Turkey who knew Fr. Santoro remembered the last thing Fr. Santoro told him and a group of priests while on retreat not long before his death. “I live among these people so that Jesus can live among them through me. As it was at the time of Jesus, silence, humility, the simple life, acts of faith, miracles of charity, clear and defenceless witness, and the conscious offering of one’s life can rehabilitate the Middle East. I am convinced that in the end there are no two ways, only one way that leads to light through darkness, to life through the bitterness of death. Only by offering one’s flesh is salvation possible. The evil that stalks the world must be borne and pain must be shared till the end in one’s own flesh as Jesus did.”
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
