The news agency of the Italian bishops conference, SIR, said the body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was found near the Iraqi city of Mosul, where he had been abducted. "Monsignor Rahho is dead. We have found him lifeless near Mosul," the agency quoted the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, Monsignor Shlemon Warduni, as saying. "The kidnappers had buried him."
Rahho was taken February 29, when he left the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul where he attended the ‘Via Crucis’ (Way of the Cross), a Catholic devotion commemorating Jesus’ last hours before dying at a cross, ahead of Easter. His body guards apparently attempted to prevent the kidnapping, but they were killed in a shoot out along with the bishop’s driver, police and Christians said at the time.
Initially Iraqi Christians remained hopeful the bishop would be freed alive. However soon the kidnappers made demands which church officials said were "impossible to meet", including a reported ransom of up to $2.5 million and Christian support for an ongoing violent insurgency.
KIDNAPPERS CALLED
On Wednesday, March 11, the kidnappers telephoned mediators to say that Rahho was "very ill", before calling back to report he had was dead and had been buried. It was not immediately clear Thursday, March 13, whether the bishop was killed or had died because if illness.
In a telegram sent to Chaldean Patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel Delly III , the pope deplored "the inhuman act of violence" saying it "damaged the cause of fraternal coexistence between the beloved Iraqi people," Vatican Radio reported. The pope "assured his most fervent prayers in suffrage of this zealous pastor who was abducted after celebrating the Way of the Cross," the telegram said. "He also invoked the Lord’s mercy so that this tragic event serves to build a future of peace in the martyred land of Iraq," Vatican Radio added.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said "everyone had hoped and prayed for his freedom, including the pope who made an appeal for his release." The pope’s appeal had been joined by other Christian, as well as Muslim leaders in Iraq.
POPE PRAYING
Lombardi said in a statement monitored by BosNewsLife that the pope was "Praying in solidarity with the people of Iraq, and particularly its small Christian community, at this time when unjustifiable violence continues to rage throughout the country."
Since the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been targeted by Islamic extremists who label them "crusaders" loyal to American troops. Churches, priests and business owned by Christians have been attacked by Islamic militants and many have fled the country. In an interview with AsiaNews, a Vatican-affiliated missionary news agency, in November Archbishop Rahho warned that the situation in Mosul was not improving for Christians. "Religious persecution", he added, "is more noticeable than elsewhere because the city is split along religious lines."
"Everyone is suffering from this war irrespective of religious affiliation, but in Mosul Christians face starker choices," he told the news agency.
CHRISTIANS FLEE
Last year’s International Religious Freedom Report from the United States State Department noted that Chaldean Catholics comprise a tiny minority of the Iraqi population, but are the largest group among roughly 750.000 Christians in mostly Muslim Iraq. Chaldeans can trace their roots to the Assyrian Church, which recognized the authority of Rome in the 16th century.
Church leaders have criticized the US-led coalition for allegedly not doing enough to protect religious minorities, including Christians.
Violence also continued in the capital Baghdad, where the car bombing took place off a bridge in Tahrir Square, a district of clothing shops just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the American Embassy and much of the Iraqi government, police said. Dozens of others were killed. It was not clear who was responsible for the latest blast. (With reporting from Iraq).
