A Catholic bishop in southern Turkey was found stabbed to death on Thursday and his driver arrested for the alleged murder, according to Turkish media reports.
Bishop Luigi Padovese, the Vicar Apostolic for the Anatolia region, was found dead in his summer home in the city of Iskendrun, in the Hatay region on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
It was not immediately clear what the motive for the killing was.
The Hatay region is home to an ancient, but dwindling, community of Christians who have lived in the area since Roman times.
In recent years, nationalist extremists in Turkey on several occasions have attacked or kidnapped Christian clergymen in the country.
Luigi Padovese took up his post in Iskenderun in November 2004.
