The 2009 kidnapping of Irish Columban Father Michael Sinnott was not the cause of a decision by the missioners to pull out of a southern Philippines diocese.

Father Daniel O’Malley explained that the decision by the Missionary Society of St. Columban (MSSC) to leave Pagadian diocese after 62 years was the result of a shortage of priests to administer the parish of Malate.

“They are asking me to go” to a downtown Manila parish where the other Columbans are all over 70 years old, Father O’Malley said.

He said the decision had “nothing to do with the kidnapping" of Father Sinnott from the Columban house in Pagadian City.

Father Sinnott was held in captivity for a month after armed men seized him on Oct. 11, 2009.

Father O’Malley, 62, said leaving was a “difficult” decision for 80-year old Father Sinnott, who decided “he would not stay in Pagadian without me because of his health.”

Philippine Columbans began discussing closing the Pagadian mission in 2008 and finally decided last April.

“All this could have happened without the kidnapping,” the missioner said.

Father O’Malley said that Filipino Columban priests could be assigned to the diocese for missionary service among indigenous people and other work.

He and Father Sinnott joined another Columban, Father Paul Finlayson, at a thanksgiving Mass at Santo Nino Cathedral on July 26.

Bishop Emmanuel Cabajar of Pagadian expressed his “deep gratitude” for the work of the Columbans, whose “missionary zeal” inspired so many young Filipinos to become diocesan priests.

Jasmine Sabino, 19, whose studies are funded by the Columbans, said she will always remember Fathers O’Malley and Sinnott.

The two priests have been “like a father to me,” she said.

Founded in Ireland in 1916, MSSC has 66 members in the Philippines, 47 of them priests.

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