Tagle asks to ring church bells to honor killed priest in NLuzon

MANILA— Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle urged churches in the Archdiocese of Manila to toll bells at 8 p.m. every day in memory of slain priest Fr. Mark Ventura and other victims of killings.

In a letter signed Monday but was only released Wednesday, Tagle asked the Archdiocese of Manila to “continue the practice and to invite our communities to pause, remember and pray.”

“Needless to say, the poor, needy, helpless and vulnerable are the usual casualties,” he said.

Last September 2017, Tagle issued an appeal that Manila churches should ring their bells for five minutes at 8 in the evening to remember the thousands of dead under the government’s bloody war on illegal drugs.

“The bells haunt the perpetrators of violence and killing to remember their victims, never to forget them. The bells urge us to commit to actions of truth, justice, love and respect for God’s gift of human life and dignity. The bells beg us to transform the mourning of our people into hope and peace,” the archbishop of Manila said.

Ventura was gunned down by armed assailants right after celebrating Sunday mass at a gymnasium in Brgy. Pena Weste, Gattaran in Cagayan Province.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines earlier condemned the killing of the 37-year-old priest, calling it an “evil act.”

Tuguegarao Archbishop Sergio Utleg said the Catholic church lost a “zealous and dedicated” priest in the death of Ventura.