austraLasia 1368
On the Feast of St. Stephen - reactions to the death
of Fr Philip
NAIROBI: 26th December 2005 -- Fr Joseph Pulikal, AFE
Provincial, wrote this morning to the confreres of his province giving
more details of the event which has shocked the Salesian world and
indeed so many in Kenya and Tanzania where Fr Philip was
well-known. Fr Brian Jerstice in Tanzania has wondered at the
number of priests, religious and volunteers killed in similar fashion
in the past years in Africa - at least eight, personally known to him:
they include Sean Deveraux, Fr Declan Collins and now Fr Philip
Valayam. Fr Francis Preston, Rector at the Salesian Ratisbonne
Institue in Jerusalem, writes of his visit this morning to Beit Jemal,
a Salesian community some 40 kms west of Jerusalem. It would
seem, as has been believed by many and now with recent corroborating
evidence, that the martyr Stephen's body was brought precisely to this
place, after he was killed. The resting place (his body was later
transferred to Jerusalem) is beneath the Salesian Church at Beit
Jemal. Fr Preston notes how our celebrations of life and death
are interwoven, especially as we celebrate the Christmas story.
Back in Nairobi, on Christmas Day, a memorial mass
was celebrated starting at the scene of the crime, where the
penitential rite was held. The procession moved to the DBYES
chapel nearby. Some of the blood shed by Fr Philip was kept
before the altar during the mass. The celebrant and homilist reminded
those present of the particular power of the words 'This is my
body...my blood' in the context, words Fr Philip had uttered a few
hours before at midnight mass.
From Fr Pulikal's letter, the details of the crime
are now clearer. Fr Philip was returning from Uhuru Camp, a
military chapel, with three confreres from the theologate and a
youngster. He had dropped the confreres off at Utume and was
heading home with the lad only to find themselves blocked by thugs who
had dragged a telephone pole across the road. They were seconds
from home. The thugs demanded money and Fr Philip reversed
the vehicle - it was at that point that they shot him. The boy
escaped into bushes and fled the 200 metres back to DBYES. The
thugs disappeared. The police accompanied the body of Fr. Philip
to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Fr Philip's parents are still alive. The body
will be flown back to India and buried in the Salesian cemetery in
Mannuthy.
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