Catholic mission in Pagadian closes a year after Sinnott abduction

One year after one of its missionaries there was abducted, a Catholic mission in the southern city of Pagadian has decided to pull out of the area. But Columban missionaries insisted the closure was not due to last year's abduction of Fr. Michael Sinnott but because of a shortage of priests. "They are asking me to go to a downtown Manila parish where the other Columbans are all over 70 years old," said Fr. Daniel O’Malley of the Missionary Society of St. Columban (MSSC), in an article posted on the Union of Catholic Asian News website. He said MSSC's decision to leave the Pagadian diocese after 62 years was due to a shortage of priests to administer the parish of Malate. "(The decision had) nothing to do with the kidnapping of Father Sinnott from the Columban house in Pagadian City," he added. Armed men seized Sinnott on Oct. 11 last year and held him in captivity for a month before releasing him. (See: Irish priest Fr. Sinnott freed after one month in captivity) O’Malley, 62, said leaving was a “difficult" decision for 80-year old Father Sinnott, who decided "he would not stay in Pagadian without me because of his health." The UCAN report said Philippine Columbans began discussing closing the Pagadian mission in 2008 and finally decided to do so last April. "All this could have happened without the kidnapping," O'Malley said. He added Filipino Columban priests could be assigned to the diocese for missionary service among indigenous people and other work. O'Malley and Father Sinnott joined another Columban, Fr. Paul Finlayson, at a thanksgiving Mass at the Santo Niño Cathedral Monday. Pagadian Bishop Emmanuel Cabajar expressed his “deep gratitude" for the work of the Columbans, whose “missionary zeal" inspired so many young Filipinos, including himself, to become diocesan priests. Jasmine Sabino, 19, whose studies are funded by the Columbans, said she will always remember Fathers O’Malley and Sinnott. The two priests have been “like a father to me," she said. Founded in Ireland in 1916, MSSC has 66 members in the Philippines, 47 of them priests, the UCAN report said. — RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV