“The real reason for the killing of Father Santoro was religious exaltation, encouraged by the antichristian atmosphere” which could be felt in the region, “within the family, at school, and during the readings”. Those words were spoken by Msgr Luigi Padovese, Vicar Apostolic of Anatoly, during a brief and improvised meeting with the journalists at the press room of the Vatican. As for the hypotheses concerning last Sunday’s tragic murder, Msgr Padovese said that “the version which hurt me more was the one made known by a Turkish daily with national circulation, according to which at that time, inside the church, there were four or five boys who got in for Father Andrea was giving them some money to attract them”. On the contrary, Msgr Padovese rejects “any accusations of alleged proselytism”, explaining that “the church was open three times a week, from 3 to 4 pm, for anybody who wished to get information about Christianity. However, when children got in to play tricks or to create disorder, Father Andrea as happened on the day before he died, too sent them away, telling them that if they wanted to lose their time they might do that somewhere else”. As for the situation of the Christians in Anatolia, Msgr Padovese says “it is not simple: the news made known about the Catholic Church are either commonplaces or they tend to disparage Christianity”. Even the Catholic cemetery in Trebizond was destroyed by bulldozers, and the tombs profaned, “and now only three gravestones are left. A few days ago, Father Andrea got in touch with the Mayor, asking him to surround what by then was a brushwood area with a fence”.
