Slain priest 'should be' canonised

The story of an Italian priest murdered while he prayed in his church in Turkey has all the makings of a Christian martyr and should be put on the road to sainthood, Italy's most senior cardinal said yesterday.

Andrea Santoro was shot dead in his church in Trabzon on Turkey's Black Sea coast last Sunday. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder which media have said was inspired by the protests against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

"Right from now, inside me, I am convinced that Don Andrea's sacrifice has all the elements needed to make him a Christian martyr," Cardinal Camillo Ruini said to prolonged applause from hundreds of mourners gathered for the priest's funeral Mass.

"We will fully respect the laws and timeframe of the Church in the process of beatification and canonisation that I have in mind to open," Cardinal Ruini said in his homily in the Basilica of St John's in Lateran, Rome's cathedral.

Some of Italy's top politicians attended the funeral along with the 61-year-old priest's bereaved mother who held a framed photo of her son during the service and clutched his coffin for several minutes as it was being placed in the funeral car.

Pope Benedict, who condemned the cartoons which sparked often violent protests in many Muslim countries, announced on Thursday he would visit Turkey in November.