Pope thinks 'every day' about Italian priest snatched in Mindanao

ROME (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that he thinks "every day" about an Italian missionary who was kidnapped in Mindanao a month ago by suspected Muslim extremists.

"My thoughts go every day to Father (Giancarlo) Bossi," the pope told reporters as he arrived at his alpine summer vacation home in Lorenzago di Cadore, northern Italy, for a three-week holiday.

"We hope and pray that the Lord will help us," the pontiff added.

Hopes for Bossi, 57, were raised Saturday when it emerged that a fellow priest had been sent photographs of him apparently unharmed.

The digital pictures show Bossi looking thin and haggard but otherwise well.

The president's office has said the priest, who was taken hostage on June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay province on the southern island of Mindanao, may be in the hands of renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Muslim separatist group that signed a ceasefire with the government to open the door to peace talks.

The MILF was initially helping in the efforts to free him, but the group has since withdrawn from the search.