volatile province of Zamboanga Subugay, apparently because of security concerns, BosNewsLife learned Monday, July 23.
"[Father] Bossi will be working in [the] Mindanao [region], but certainly not in the San Pablo Parish" in Payao municipality, said Bossi’s regional supervisor, Priest Gianbattista Sandalo at the Mary Queen of Apostles Parish in the Diocese of Paranaque, south of Manila.
Sandalo refused to tell BosNewsLife why Bossi would not be allowed to return full-time to Payao, amid signs of behind the scenes discussions within the church hierarchy.
A final decision was to be announced by Priest Gian Battista Zanchi, who leads the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions where Bossi is working. Zanchi is due to arrive in Manila at the end of this month for a meeting with the church leadership, Sandalo said.
ASSIGNMENT ELSEWHERE?
A possible assignment elsewhere was expected to come as a major disappointment for Bossi, who told reporters he wanted to return to his parish, made up of predominantly impoverished people.
However he later said it was up to leaders to decide his future within the church. "It is up to Father Zanchi, superior general, and the newly-elected bishop Monsignor Julius Sullan Tonel of Ipile, about my assignment," Bossi stressed.
Bossi will discuss his future when he returns to Italy to meet Pope Benedict XVI, family and relatives and possibly the Italian Prime Minster Romano Prodi, church officials told BosNewsLife.
He is also scheduled to address an Italian youth gathering in the town of Loreto, August 1-2, organized by the Italian Bishops’ Conference, and "will also take some months rest in Italy," Sandalo told BosNewsLife.
BRIEF VISIT
He will return to the Philippines after a “couple of months,” Sandalo added. Before flying to Italy, he will briefly visit his parish Thursday, July 26. Bossi already celebrated his first Mass at the Queen of the Mary Queen of Apostles Parish in the Diocese of Paranaque, on Sunday, July 22, after he was released on July 19.
About 200 people attended the church service. Bossi, a 57-year-old missionary from Milan, thanked those who "had prayed and supported" him during the nearly six-week ordeal. He particularly mentioned the pope and 14 Marines who were killed in a clash with rebels while searching for him.
Bossi was seized July 10 and held in the jungles along the border of southern Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur provinces by suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group engaged in peace talks with the government, officials said.
"I still feel like a prisoner," he jokingly told the congregation, saying he has been overwhelmed by the limelight and flurry of media interviews.
