P. Bossi: “I would like to meet the Pope”
Manila (AsiaNews) – “Next week I will go back to Zamboanga and Payao to greet my parishioners while I am due to return to Italy in mid August”. Speaking by telephone to AsiaNews, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi confirms that he is “in good health” and almost jokingly, confesses that his only concern is the media assault which in the last two days have “made me feel as if I were still in captivity”, even if this is a pleasurable prison.
His deepest desire is to “be able to embrace my people”, but it will also be wonderful to “see my family again”. Before his return to Italy, Fr. Bossi will undergo further medical tests, to exclude any physical consequences of his 39 day sequester in the forest.
To mark the youth gathering in Loreto, due to take place early September, the Italian missionary may even personally greet Benedict XVI and give a witness account his experience as a missionary to the crowds of young people: “It would be a truly marvellous moment: I have never met the Pope it would really have great meaning for me”.
In the interim new facts surrounding the release have emerged: Jaime Caringal, Chief of police in Zamboanga, confirms that “psychological weapons” were used to induce the abductors to release the hostage. He excludes the payment of a ransom or prisoner exchange (Fr. Bossi’s freedom in exchange for the release of the chief abductor captured by police). Caringal says the tactical deployment of the over 2000 troops in Lanao and Basilan were fundamental. He has also discarded the theory that the kidnappers were linked to Abu Sayyaf, while it appears probable that some of them – already identified by police – are former members of the separatist group MILF.
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