Andrea Santoro (7 September 1945, in

Priverno Priverno is a town, ''comune'' in the province of Latina, Lazio, central Italy. It was called ''Piperno'' until 1927. It has a station of the Rome-Naples railway mainline. Nearby is the Monti Lepini chain. It was the birthplace of the canonist Reg ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

– 5 February 2006, in

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

) was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

priest in Turkey, murdered in the Santa Maria Church in

where he served as a member of the Catholic Church's Fidei donum

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

program. This was one of the high-profile incidents, along with the murder of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

journalist

Hrant Dink Hrant Dink ( hy, Հրանդ Տինք; Western ; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of ''Agos'', journalist and columnist. As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspa ...

and the Zirve Publishing House murders that focused attention on hate crimes in Turkey.

Death and aftermath

On 5 February 2006 he was shot dead from behind while kneeling in prayer in the church. A witness heard the perpetrator shouting "

Allahu Akbar Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

Turkish court upholds sentence for priest's killer
4 October 2007 The motive of the attack is not known. Oğuzhan Akdin, a 16-year-old high school student, was arrested two days after the shooting, carrying a 9mm pistol. An investigation by the

U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations The Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is a U.S. federal law enforcement agency that reports directly to the Secretary of the Air Force. OSI is also a U.S. Air Force field operating agency under the administrative ...

on stolen weaponry revealed that this gun had been part of a batch of guns that the US had given to the Iraqi army but which had gone missing. The student told

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

he had been influenced by the

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy The ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, da, Muhammedkrisen) began after the Danish newspaper ''Jyllands-Posten'' published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted Muhamma ...

. The murder was preceded by massive anti-Christian propaganda in the Turkish popular press. In the three months before his murder, Santoro's telephone had been tapped by the Turkish police in Trabzon. On 10 October 2006, Oğuzhan Akdin was sentenced to 18 years, 10 months, and 20 days in prison for "premeditated murder" by a juvenile court in

. According to head of the local Catholic administration, the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia, Bishop

Luigi Padovese Luigi Padovese (31 March 1947 – 3 June 2010) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who became a bishop and served as the Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia in Turkey. He was a Franciscan and a scholar who devoted most of his career to teachin ...

, neither the killer nor his mother showed any remorse during the trial. As the murderer of Armenian-Turkish journalist

also came from Trabzon and was also under 18 years of age, Turkish police were investigating possible connections between the slayings of Santoro and Dink. In October 2007, Turkey's Court of Appeals affirmed the jail sentence for Santoro's killer. Following the

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt On 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted to seize cont ...

, the killer was released from jail after serving less than 10 years of his sentence.

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

recalled his

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

in his homily at the Shrine of Meryem Ana Evi (House of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

) in Ephesus on 29 November 2006. At Don Santoro's funeral at the

Basilica of St. John Lateran The Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran ( it, Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), also known as the Papa ...

, Cardinal

Camillo Ruini Camillo Ruini (; born 19 February 1931) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was made a cardinal in 1991. He served as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference from 1991 to 2007 and as Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome fr ...

, the vicar of the Diocese of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, mentioned in his homily that the possible beatification process for Don Santoro may be opened after February 2011. His assassination is marked annually by the Don Andrea Santoro Association, which is organized in part by Cardinal

Angelo De Donatis Angelo De Donatis (born 4 January 1954) is an Italian Catholic prelate who currently serves as Cardinal Vicar (officially Vicar General of His Holiness), Archpriest of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical ...

, the

Vicar General of Rome it, Vicario Generale di Sua Santità , unofficial_names = Cardinal Vicar , insignia = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , insigniasize = 75px , insigniacaption = Coat of arms of the Diocese of Rome , image = AngeloDeDonatis.jpg , incumbent = Angel ...

and a seminary classmate of Santoro.

References

External links

Homily
by

Andrea Riccardi Andrea Riccardi (born 16 January 1950, in Rome) is an Italian historian, professor, politician and activist, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio. He served as minister for international cooperation Minister without portfolio, without portfol ...

, founder of the

Community of Sant'Egidio The Community of Sant'Egidio ( it, Comunità di Sant'Egidio) is a lay Catholic association dedicated to social service, founded in 1968 under the leadership of Andrea Riccardi. The group grew and in 1973 was given a home at the former Carmelit ...

in memory of Andrea Santoro
"Wachs, das sich verzehren lässt"
- Church historian Prof. Dr. Rudolf Grulich about life and death of Don Andrea Santoro (German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Santoro, Andrea 1945 births 2006 deaths People killed by Islamic terrorism People murdered in Turkey 21st-century Roman Catholic martyrs 21st-century venerated Christians Italian Servants of God People associated with the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy Italian people murdered abroad Deaths by firearm in Turkey Victims of anti-Catholic violence 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests

Death and aftermath

See also

References

External links