Bishop says arrest of suspect in Fr. Tentorio’s killing “key step” towards justice
By Mindanews
January 1, 2012

 DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 January) – Kidapawan Bishop Romulo dela Cruz is “not prepared to dismiss and make light of the results of the work of the NBI-PNP-Department of Justice Team” in Thursdays’ arrest of a suspect in the October 17 killing of Italian missionary Fausto Tentorio and welcomed the development as a “key step towards the achievement of justice and the ferreting of the truth behind Father Fausto Tentorio’s death.”

“I have seen first hand how hard they worked at the risk of their own personal safety in conducting the detective work. I have seen how sincerely they have acted to make good President P-Noy’s vow to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of Father Fausto Tentorio,” the bishop said in a statement dated January 1 but which he read at the 10 p.m. mass on December 31 in Kidapawan City.

Tentorio, parish priest of Arakan and a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was killed early morning of October 17, just as he was about to leave the parish convent for a monthly Presbyterium at the Bishop’s House in Kidapawan City.

Investigators admitted they had no leads as no witnesses came forward to point to the killers.
Dela Cruz urged parishioners to let the DOJ team continue its work on the case. “That is the least we can do, instead of spinning ‘conspiracy theories’ bereft of factual foundations, but are more products of stale and sterile ideologies from the right and the left.”

“And if you should be moved by the Spirit, because of what you personally know or have done, come forward, and help the Prosecution form a fuller picture of what happened. Of course, all of us should continue to pray for the intercession of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace, for the conversion of the guilty, the forgiveness of the repentant and the renewal of our faith in God’s justice,” the bishop said.

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