BY Daniel Harkins | March 29 | 
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Calls for an end to speculation about kidnapped Indian priest
Church officials have dismissed reports that Fr Thomas Uzhunnallil was crucified by ISIS on Good Friday.
Senior church officials have called for an end to speculation and rumour about the whereabouts and condition of a kidnapped Indian priest.
A number of social media posts and news reports suggested that Fr Thomas Uzhunnallil (above) was crucified by the Islamist group ISIS on Good Friday. The missing priest’s Salesian order has joined the head of the Bishop Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, and the Bombay Archdiocese for an end to the conjecture.
The Indian priest was kidnapped on March 4 from a care home for the elderly and disabled set up by Mother Teresa in Aden in 1992. A total of 16 people were killed in the raid, including four nuns of the Missionaries of Charity.
“I have no confirmation that anything happened Good Friday,” Bishop Hinder said on Monday. “Rumours that the priest had been crucified appeared to be untrue. Nobody knows exactly what is happening.”
The bishop added that he had ‘sufficient reason to doubt’ the reports of Fr Uzhunnalil’s death.
Fr Vincent Matthew of the Salesians said there ‘is no confirmed news [to] date about Fr Tom’ adding that people shouldn’t get ‘carried away by the rumours in the social media.’
Bombay Archdiocese posted a message on Facebook saying there had been no confirmation of the priest’s death by Fr Uzhunnallil’s friends, family or community.
“We request people to please stop forwarding unconfirmed reports, as this might jeopardise Fr Tom’s safety,” the statement says. “Please continue to keep him in your prayers.”
The confusion follows reports that Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna confirmed that the alesian priest had been crucified by ISIS on Good Friday.
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