ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (REUTER) - A man and a boy possibly as young as 10 shot dead a Roman Catholic bishop in front of his cathedral on Jolo island on Tuesday in the latest outbreak of religious violence in the troubled southern Philippines. A church spokesman said Bishop Benjamin de Jesus died instantly when he was shot six times with 45 calibre pistols at point-blank range near his cathedral on Jolo island. A female bystander was killed and five civilians were wounded when chasing police traded fire with the killers, who escaped through a crowd in a central town, army officials said. In Manila, church spokesman Monsignor Pedro Quitorio called on Catholics to remain calm and urged them not to be provoked into reprisals. Jolo, about 900 km (560 miles) south of Manila, is one of the most volatile areas in the southern Mindanao region, the scene of a lingering Moslem secessionist movement. The main rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, reached a peace deal with the government last year but radical guerrillas demanding an Islamic state, including the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf group, still operate in the area. The military has blamed the Abu Sayyaf for a spate of bombings and raids in the region in the past four years, including the kidnapping of several foreign missionaries in Jolo and nearby Basilan island. Suspected Abu Sayyaf extremists abducted an American Roman Catholic missionary in Jolo two years ago but police rescued the clergyman hours later. Church officials said de Jesus had previously received threats that he would be kidnapped. "We don`t know of anyone who might want to do him harm," Quitorio said. "Bishop de Jesus was a man without any politics." De Jesus was one of about 120 bishops in this largely Roman Catholic country of almost 70 million people. Moslems number about five million and are concentrated in the south. Jolo is a predominantly Moslem island with a population of about 700,000, of whom about 20,000 are Catholics. Police said they had not established the identity of the assassins or the motive for the attack.