Feb 5, 8:08 PM (ET)By SUZAN FRASER
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A teenage boy shot and killed the Italian Roman Catholic priest of a church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon on Sunday, shouting "God is great" as he escaped, according to police and witnesses.
Officers were searching for the boy aged around 14 or 15, according to a police official who declined to be identified because of rules that bar Turkish civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.
The police official would not say if the attack might be linked to the printing in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which has caused anger in Muslim countries. Earlier Sunday, hundreds of Turks protested in Istanbul against the cartoons.
"Whether the killing is linked to the caricatures will emerge when the culprit has been caught," Trabzon's Gov. Huseyin Yavuzdemir said.
The priest, 60-year-old Andrea Santoro, was shot hours after Mass at Santa Maria Church.
A woman who answered the telephone at the church said the priest was inside when he was attacked, and prosecutor Burhan Cobanoglu said he was shot twice from behind, with bullets ripping through his heart and liver.
Pope Benedict XVI's envoy in Turkey, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello, said he had spoken by telephone with a witness who said she saw the attacker fleeing and "heard the young man shout 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great).'"
Lucibello declined to speculate on the motive for the killing, but said there were "no elements" to link the attack with the protests over the newspaper cartoons.
Turkey's government denounced the attack.
"We condemn with hatred the fact that the murder was committed in a house of worship against a man of religion," said Justice Minister Cemil Cicek.
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Associated Press reporter Frances D'Emilio in Rome contribute to this report.
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"JUST" WARS & DOUBLE-TONGUED DEMOCRATS
On May 2, 2003 Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger stated: “He (John Paul II) did not impose this position ('Iraq War not necessary') as doctrine of the Church but as the appeal of a conscience enlightened by faith” (Zenit News Agency). Unlike many U.S. Democrats, Pope John Paul's thoughts on the Iraq War were not voiced in an arrogant, judgmental manner. He loved America, and praised President George W. Bush's moral leadership (Zenit News - June 4, 2004).
Pope John Paul II never praised President Clinton for his "moral values," because Clinton, along with most Democrats, believes you have the "right to kill" through abortion - a horrible crime against humanity that has resulted in the cruel deaths of millions of innocent, defenseless, unborn human beings. Cardinal Ratzinger later confirmed: "There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion, even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia" (Italian magazine "L'espresso," June 2004).
Would Pope John Paul II have considered it a "Just War" if France, England, and the U.S. had disarmed Germany, preventing Hitler from invading Poland and other countries? The vast majority of Americans agreed with President George W. Bush's decision to disarm Iraq, and eliminate their capacity to wage war when it was thought Iraq was developing biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons that could be used against America, and other nations. Aided by the Democratic Party, the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the Iraq War Resolution.
On Feb. 17, 1998 President Clinton stated: "If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." Solid evidence that clearly shows faulty intelligence on Iraq initially came from Bill Clinton.
Vincent Bemowski - Writer (U.S. Politics & World Affairs)
Menasha, Wisconsin USA
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