That February 5th twenty years ago, that Sunday evening, she herself replied, Maddalena Santoroon the phone: on the other side someone told her that her younger brother, Don Andrea, had died. He did not immediately know, therefore, that he had been killed at the age of sixty by two gunshots in the back while he was praying with the Bible in his hands. in the church of Santa Maria in Trabzon, Turkeywhere he was sent as a fidei donum missionary in 2000 by the diocese of Rome.
Who will remember him, for the twentieth anniversary of “his sacrifice”, in the parish of Santi Fabiano e Venanzio in Villa Fiorelli, where Don Santoro was parish priest from ’94 to 2000, with a Mass at 6.30 pm presided over by the cardinal vicar Baldo Reina and animated by the diocesan choir directed by Monsignor Marco Frisina. The previous evening, at 9pm, a prayer vigil will be held in his memory in the parish of San Frumenzio ai Prati Fiscali, presided over by the parish priest Don Marco Vianello (who at the end of the 1990s was assistant parish priest in the parish of Villa Fiorelli led by Don Santoro), with a phrase from Don Andrea as a common thread: “Come, bring your heart to sow reconciliation and dialogue”.
«It wasn’t just knowing that my brother was dead, but that he had been killed. The first question was: why? He was very delicate and respectful, he didn’t expose himself, he said that the Gospel had to be lived and therefore they saw him testify to it”, says the sister Maddalenawhich preserves the living memory of how the tragedy came to the house when their mother was still alive: Maria was 88 years old and will pass away in 2012, at 94. «She kept repeating: “I didn’t know that one could not die of pain”. He experienced this drama in a lacerating way. On the day of the funeral, the diocese asked us to say a prayer and she said: “Lord, I know that Don Andrea didn’t do anything that could disturb him, he loved Turkey and the people, whatever religion they were. Even the boy who killed Andrea is a son of God. I can say that my son is a saint, because others say so.”
The family immediately received requests for testimonies about Don Santoro’s life, from parishioners and former parishioners who had known him or who wanted to know him after his death. So few months later the Association was born which bears his name «to make his spirituality known and collect his writings». While he continued to promote ecumenical and interreligious initiatives “Window to the Middle East”the association founded by Don Andrea himself. His body – “by decision of the diocese”, specifies his sister – was moved from the tomb of the parish priests of Rome in the Verano cemetery to the church of Saints Fabiano and Venanzio on 2 December 2022, the following day interred in a tomb at the foot of the large Crucifix where the priest used to stop in prayer.
“The Church is my family”, Don Andrea repeated – ordained as a 25-year-old priest on 18 October 1970 – to his mother and sisters. «Everything that belonged to Don Andrea is for the diocese. All his writings have been collected in the diocesan archive, some of them published – says Maddalena -, in which we read that Christ suggested to him to be an “open door”. His fundamental research focused on how to be a priest according to Jesus, approaching people, walking the streets and entering homes. He wrote: “I give you my flesh, Lord, so that you can be present and others can meet you”. In the Diary of the Holy Land he wishes peace to the Palestinian land, to the children of Muhammad, to the children of Israel: a precious legacy that speaks to all men and women today, that of his spirituality of dialogue and encounter. His concern was to bear witness and make faith shine with respect for others, according to Revelation: God is love, mercy, and he shows it to us through Jesus. It means welcoming us and also asking us for forgiveness.”
On this exquisitely ecumenical and interreligious trait, and on his love for the Word, he also insists the permanent deacon Don Francesco Armentijournalist, since 18 July 2024 appointed postulator of the cause of beatification (not yet open) of Don Santoro, who he defines as «a radical man and priest: for him there were no half terms and compromises, especially when it came to defending the Gospel and people. Before announcing it, he entrusted himself totally to the Word, he allowed himself to be examined and broken by its light, he reflected it by incarnating it in history, he lived it in the places he visited and which retrace the mission of Jesus”.
In Don Andrea «the Word became prayer and opened up horizons for him to encounter poverty, with attention to the women and men of his time»points out Don Armenti, highlighting another key to the spirituality of the priest killed twenty years ago: «His relationship with the Eucharist, which was born from the relationship with the Word. The body of Christ became his body, to be given through his existence. The Word helped him to penetrate the mystery of Christ and his time. In a letter to his parents he almost seems to foresee and foresee his martyrdom, the offering of his life; he wrote it on February 5, 1981 when he was in Bethany: “There are many ways to die, the important thing is to say yes to what God sends you”. A sort of program for his life.”
In Turkey the memory of Don Santoro «is alive among Christians but also among non-Christians; many invoke him as an intercessor. Many people leave testimonies and prayers on his tomb at Saints Fabiano and Venanzio, not only those who knew him”, reports the postulator. The chalice, the paten and the stole belonging to Don Andrea are kept and displayed in the Basilica of San Bartolomeo on the Tiber Island, memorial to the new martyrs of the twentieth century. While in the parish of Jesus of Nazareth, where the priest was parish priest from 1981 to ’93, For six years, the Turkish language Bible that he had in his hands at the time of his killing, hit by a bullet, has been kept in a display case.
“Here too, prayers and offerings are also left by the faithful in Turkish currency”, adds Don Armenti, who last January 25th, on Word Sunday, hosted a prayer and meditation meeting in this very church, discussion and reflection on the spirituality of Don Santoro. «He had the gift of healthy restlessness: those who knew him saw him always looking for a way to let God meet him and how people could meet him through his testimony. The Church today demands authentic priests, he is one of the lights that the Lord can give us in this historical and geopolitical situation: a prophet of peace.”
