A film honoring Father Rhoel Gallardo, a Filipino Claretian priest martyred in 2000, premiered May 3 in support of his canonization cause, which opened in 2021.
The documentary film, “Seeds of Peace” premiered in Manila, Philippines, on the 26th anniversary of Fr. Gallardo’s martyrdom, UCA News reported.
Fr. Gallardo was abducted on March 20, 2000, by Abu Sayyaf, a group the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. At the time, he was serving as parish priest and director of Claret School in Basilan province in the southern Philippines, where several students and teachers were also taken captive.
He was held for 43 days before his captors killed him for refusing demands to renounce the Catholic faith. According to UCA News, multiple accounts said his captors removed his toenails as a form of torture before shooting him in the head, shoulder, and back.
The film about Fr. Gallardo’s heroic witness was produced by the Gallardo family and the Claretian Missionaries of Father Rhoel Gallardo Province, which renamed its Philippine province after Fr. Gallardo in 2021.
Provincial supervisor Father Amado Tumbaga said the film supports Fr. Gallardo’s canonization process and reflects the Claretian mission of promoting peace and justice in Basilan, where the order has served for 75 years.
“This is not about Christian-Muslim conflict,” Fr. Tumbaga said, “but how we stand for peace in the midst of threats against peace, like violence. Because the whole of Basilan, whether Muslim or Christian, longs for peace.”
Fr. Gallardo’s brother, 56-year-old Jesse Gallardo, also reflected on his own transformation following the priest’s death, saying he moved from anger toward Muslims to seeing them as “brothers in faith.”
Upon viewing the film, Gallardo said he was moved to tears as he felt he was “in the shoes” of his brother.
Fr. Gallardo’s canonization cause is currently in its diocesan phase, the initial stage of the Church’s formal investigation into a candidate for sainthood.