Philippines: Vatican Doesn’t Object To Mindanao Martyr’s Cause
By UCA News
The Vatican has posed no objection to the beatification process of Father Francesco Palliola, a Jesuit priest who was martyred in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao.
Bishop Severo Caermare of Dipolog told ucanews.com that he received the needed nihil obstat from the Vatican last week.
Bishop Caermare presided over the formal opening of the canonical investigation into the life and martyrdom of Father Palliola last January.
A Subanen tribal leader killed the Italian Jesuit priest in the coastal village of Ponot in Zamboanga del Norte province on Jan. 29, 1648.
Father Palliola established Christian settlements in the western part of Mindanao among the Subanen.
Although he died some 368 years ago, the Jesuit priest is still remembered in the oral history of the tribe as a “loving and protective father.”
