Christian-Muslim education pioneer buried in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY — Central Mindanao’s Catholic community laid to his final rest yesterday the city’s legendary bishop, known for his role in setting up dozens of schools in the South and for his advocacy of inter-faith dialogues as a means of fostering religious solidarity among sectarian groups.

The 77-year-old retired Cotabato Archbishop Philip Smith of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who died in his bed at the Notre Dame Hospital here Sept. 30, was buried in the compound of the city’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral, beside the tomb of his predecessor, Canandian-born Gerard Mongeau, also of the OMI congregation. — John Unson