MANILA (AFP) - Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, who survived a 39-day kidnap ordeal in the southern Philippines, flew home late Saturday and will not return to his parish, media reports said Sunday.
According to a report in the Philippine Star newspaper, he is expected to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Loreto, Italy, on September 1.
The 57-year-old was joined on the flight by Gian Battista Zanchi, head of the Pontifical Institute on Foreign Mission of which Bossi is a member.