Mother Forgives Priest Son’s Turkish Murderer
By Terry Vanderheyden

ROME, March 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – 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 millimetre 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 e-mail 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.” The rest