Manila, Philippines - Gunmen abducted an Italian Roman Catholic priest who was on his way to a remote village to celebrate Sunday Mass in the southern Philippines, police said.
Giancarlo Bossi, 57, was riding his motorcycle in Zamboanga Sibugay province's Payao township, about 500 miles south of Manila, when about 10 armed men blocked his path then seized him, said Senior Superintendent Francisco Cristobal, the provincial police chief.
Cristobal said he suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels who operate in Zamboanga Sibugay, despite a cease-fire agreement with the government. He did not elaborate, but said that al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, notorious for ransom kidnappings, are not known to be active in the area.
Cristobal said police received reports that the group boarded two boats, possibly to flee to nearby islands. Police and the military were searching for the priest with land and coastal patrols, he added.
Mohagher Iqbal, a peace negotiator for the rebel group, denied Moro militants were behind the abduction.
Hours after the kidnapping, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the abductions of priests and others around the world and said he was praying for all those who were being held hostage.
"I direct my appeal to the authors of these abominable acts, so that they realize the wrong they have done and quickly return their prisoners to their loved ones," Benedict said.
Bossi was assigned as parish priest of Payao in April and is a member of the Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere, Cristobal said. Sundalo Jianni, an official from the mission, appealed to Bossi's abductors to free him.
"Father Bossi is a good man and there is no reason to hold him against his will," he told the local Mindanao Examiner newspaper.
In 2001, the criminal Pentagon group, which is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations, abducted an Italian missionary who was rescued several months later. Several other Filipino and foreign Catholic priests have been targeted in the past.