Priest eighth Columban killed

Father Rufus Halley (57) who was shot dead in the Philippines yesterday was the second Irish Columban priest to be killed on the southern island of Mindanao and the eighth murdered in the Philippines since the order arrived there in the 1920s. Father Martin Dempsey, a Dubliner, was killed in Mindanao in 1970.

Father Alo Connaughton of the Columban Fathers at Dalgan Park, Co Meath, said Father Halley had gone to the remote parish of Balabang on Monday. It was not known who shot him, he said. No witnesses had come forward so far.

He said Father Halley, who was from Killoteran, Co Waterford, had confronted a number of men believed to be behind violent incidents there, in what was a highly volatile area. "They probably had it in for him," he said.

Father Des Hartford, who was kidnapped in Mindanao in 1997 and held for 12 days by Muslim rebels, said the area was 95 per cent Muslim. He is currently on sabbatical at Dalgan Park.

He had worked with Father Halley for peace and reconciliation in the area. He described the dead priest as "a very committed person" who saw his role as "a catalyst for reconciliation between both [Muslim and Christian] communities".

Father Halley had gone to live with Muslim families and worked in a Muslim shop so that he could better understand their beliefs, culture and way of life, he said. "He was also fluent in both Muslim and Christian dialects", and whereas some fundamentalists had regarded him with suspicion, "those [Muslims] who knew him became close friends, genuine friends", he said.

Tension in the area "was bad enough at times. This [killing] will make it much more difficult for everyone", he said. However, Father Hartford believed priests there would not consider themselves targets.

Father Halley had worked in the Philippines since he was ordained in 1969. For the past 20 years he had been working in Mindanao.

According to Father Connaughton it was frequently a case of "two steps forward, three steps back" with Muslim rebels attempting secession at one stage. But Father Halley had great empathy with both sides, he said, and witnessed many murders in his time there.

Writing in the Far East magazine in 1998, Father Halley said that over 100,000 people had been killed there during the 1970s and 1980s. In response to that situation the diocese was set up in 1978 "to work for peace and reconciliation between Muslims and Christians".

Peace-making was not an optional extra, he wrote. They set up a school. "Half of our 400 boys and girls are Muslim. Day begins and ends with common prayer led by either a Muslim or a Christian.

"Respect for one another's religion, and for the difference that represents, is part of our ethos," he wrote.

A caption on an accompanying photograph quoted him: "I'm in great shape myself and not taking life too seriously - even though I have a policeman up behind me on the motorbike, with an Armalite rifle cocked."