Iraqi Archbishop Murdered

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho has become the latest Iraqi martyr. The body of the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, was found this morning. Please pray for his soul and those of his murderers. Christians in Iraq are in particular danger and I believe the archbishop's murder was a tool used by the terrorists to force the Christians to leave.

From Asia News:

The Chaldean archbishop of Mosul had been dead for at least five days before his body was found this morning by some members of the Church, following information provided by the kidnappers themselves. This timeline is provided by the autopsy conducted on the body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, found in an abandoned area outside of the city, which is in part used as a trash dump. This information comes to AsiaNews from sources close to the deceased bishop. Archbishop Rahho had been buried, says Bishop Warduni, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad.

There do not seem to be any signs of violence on the body of the prelate, who was kidnapped on February 29. He probably died because of the lack of medicines that he had to take regularly because of his serious health problems. But the causes of his death are still not clear.

Archbishop Rahho and the three men who were with him at the moment of the ambush join the long list of Christians killed in Iraq. Mosul confirms its place as the most dangerous city for the Christian community, the presence of which has dropped by two thirds since 2003. This diocese has paid a heavy tribute in blood. In 2007 alone, at least 13 Christians are believed to have been killed - including Fr Ragheed Gani, slaughtered on June 3 - as well as two priests and a kidnapped bishop. There have been many attacks on Christian targets. The latest wave of violence came from January 6-17, 2008, when a series of explosions struck the Chaldean Church of Mary Immaculate, the Chaldean Church of St. Paul, which was almost destroyed, the entryway to the orphanage run by the Chaldean sisters in al Nour, a Nestorian church, and the convent of the Dominican sisters of Mosul Jadida.

According to a list drawn up by AsiaNews, a total of 47 people died of violent causes in Iraq last year, at least 13 of them in Mosul alone.

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a telegram to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Iraq.

In his telegram the Pope expressed his closeness "to the Chaldean Church and to the entire Christian community", and reaffirmed his "condemnation for an act of inhuman violence which offends the dignity of human beings and seriously damages the cause of the fraternal coexistence of the beloved Iraqi people".

The Holy Father gave assurances of his prayers for the archbishop "who was kidnapped just after he had completed the Way of the Cross" and invokes the Lord's mercy "that this tragic event may serve to build a future of peace in the martyred land of Iraq".

Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. also released the following declaration today:

"We had all continued to hope and pray for his release, something the Pope had requested on a number of occasions in his appeals.

"Unfortunately the most senseless and unjustified violence continues to be inflicted on the Iraqi people, and especially on the small Christian community to which the Pope and all of us are particularly close in prayer and solidarity at this moment of great suffering.

"It is to be hoped that this tragic event may once more - and more powerfully - underline the responsibility of everyone, and especially of the international community, for the pacification of so troubled a country".

NOTE: The details of the Asia News article are contradictory to the CNN report which states that the Archbishop's body did contain gunshot wounds.

Here is a brief biography of Archbishop Rahho:

Because of the conflict in Mosul, only a third of the area's Christians have remained, Archbishop Rahho denounced in November. For his little flock, the prelate still represented a "hope". The faithful recount to AsiaNews that the bishop had always said "that he wanted to remain in Iraq until the end, even if this meant death". His presence was an act of "resistance against terrorism and violence". Born in 1941, Faraj Rahho was a seminarian at the patriarchal seminary of Saint Simon. He then became the pastor of the church of Mar Elia. After a brief period of studies in Rome, he returned to Iraq. There, in the 1980's, he became the leader of the newly founded parish of St Paul in Mosul, until he was appointed as an archbishop in 2001. In 1989, he founded the Fraternity of Charity and Joy, with the aim of assisting sick people and guaranteeing them love and a dignified life. He also worked hard on behalf of young people. In the 1990's, when Iraq was under embargo, he instituted the "Youth Week", a successful initiative that later became a pastoral outreach for the entire diocese.

Photo source.

Archbishop Rahhu Kidnapped

Pray for the archbishop of Mosul, Faraj-Farraj Rahhu, who has been kidnapped and his three companions who have been murdered. The kidnapping took place following the celebration of the Stations of the Cross at Holy Spirit Cathedral in Mosul.

Also, please remember in prayer all our soldiers who are risking and giving their lives to make Iraq a peaceful place for everyone.

Finally, please pray for all the people of Iraq, both Christian and Muslim.

Photo Source.

Remembering Fr. Ganni

Zenit has recieved and translated a beautiful letter from a friend of Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni which was written after his death. This friend is a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Here are a few excerpts:

You were one of the first people I met when I arrived to Rome. We met in the halls of the Angelicum and we would drink our cappuccino in the university's cafeteria. You impressed me with your innocence, joy, your pure and tender smile that never left you.

I always picture you smiling, joyful and full of zest for life. Ragheed is to me innocence personified; a wise innocence that carries in its heart the sorrows of his unhappy people. I remember the time, in the university's dining room, when Iraq was under embargo and you told me that the price of a single cappuccino would have satisfied the needs of an Iraqi family for a whole day.

[...]

O God, we don't ask you for revenge or retaliation. We ask you for victory, a victory of justice over falsehood, life over death, innocence over treachery, blood over the sword. … Your blood will not have been shed in vain, dear Ragheed, because with it you have blessed the soil of your country. And from heaven, your tender smile will continue to light the darkness of our nights and announce to us a better tomorrow.

[...]

Brother, your blood hasn't been shed in vain, and your church's altar wasn't a masquerade. … You assumed your role with deep seriousness until the end, with a smile that would never be extinguished … ever.

Read the complete letter here.

More Violence Against Christians in Irag

From Asia News:

Another Chaldean priest was abducted in Baghdad today. Fr Hani Abdel Ahad, in his early 30s, was taken in a north-eastern section of the capital called Suleikh along with five boys who were going with him to visit the city’s minor seminar.

The incident has plunged the Christian community in a state of gloom. Some faithful have reacted to terrible news saying that they have “the impression that they are all alone, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he felt abandoned by the Father.”

Unconfirmed rumours have raised the possibility that Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly might have already received a ransom note.

The head of the Chaldean Church is currently in Al-Qosh, a town in the northern part of the country, where he is participating in the last day of the patriarchal synod.

Father Hani’s abduction comes only three days after the assassination of a Chaldean priest, Fr Ragheed Ganni, and three subdeacons in Mosul.

A Martyr's Funeral

h/t to Amy:

There is a beautiful video with images of Fr Ragheed's funeral here:

The soundtrack is Fr Ganni singing a Marian hymn along with the choir of the Chaldean community in Sweden.

May we never forget his dedication to his flock, and the bravery of his sub-deacons who travelled with him to protect him from dangers that proved all too real.

Catholic News Service is reporting:

Chaldean Catholic Bishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul was forced to pause during the funeral of an Iraqi priest and three subdeacons due to the weeping of so many in the congregation.

Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni and subdeacons Basman Yousef Daoud, Wadid Hanna and Ghasan Bida Wid were buried after the June 4 funeral in Father Ganni's hometown of Karamless, said a June 5 press statement from the British branch of Aid to the Church in Need.

The four men were killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul June 3 while leaving the Church of the Holy Spirit after having celebrated Sunday Mass.

Father Habib Al Nafali, a Chaldean Catholic priest based in London, told Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic organization funding religious projects in 145 countries, that "people were crying during the funeral service, and for awhile the bishop could not continue speaking."

The priest said many clergy and friends of Father Ganni already are calling him a "martyr of the church."

Iraqi Father Saad Syrop Hanna, 35, who was ordained in Rome in October 2001 alongside Father Ganni, said: "The Christians really are paying a great price. Is there any end for what is happening in Iraq?"

He added that Father Ganni's "death is a great loss for our church in Iraq. I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will transform the blood of these martyrs into new life for the church in Iraq."

Read the rest of the article here.

I am much more saddened by these deaths than I thought I would be. I have never met any of these three men and I do not know anyone who knows them. Despite that, we are all members of the same family...the Church. Our brothers and sisters in the Middle East need our support and prayers. The persecution continues and I am afraid that it will only escalate.

An Apt Reflection

Since I posted about the murder of Fr. Ragheed and his three subdeacons, I have been unable to get them out of my mind and my prayers. In particular the image of them remaining in the street because everyone was too afraid to remove the bodies.

I attended the noon Mass at the Cathedral and the first reading seemed so appropriate:

Tb 1:3; 2:1a-8

I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my life
on the paths of truth and righteousness.
I performed many charitable works for my kinsmen and my people
who had been deported with me to Nineveh, in Assyria.

On our festival of Pentecost, the feast of Weeks,
a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat.
The table was set for me,
and when many different dishes were placed before me,
I said to my son Tobiah: “My son,
go out and try to find a poor man
from among our kinsmen exiled here in Nineveh.
If he is a sincere worshiper of God, bring him back with you,
so that he can share this meal with me.
Indeed, son, I shall wait for you to come back.”

Tobiah went out to look for some poor kinsman of ours.
When he returned he exclaimed, “Father!”
I said to him, “What is it, son?”
He answered, “Father, one of our people has been murdered!
His body lies in the market place where he was just strangled!”
I sprang to my feet, leaving the dinner untouched;
and I carried the dead man from the street
and put him in one of the rooms,
so that I might bury him after sunset.
Returning to my own quarters, I washed myself
and ate my food in sorrow.
I was reminded of the oracle
pronounced by the prophet Amos against Bethel:

“All your festivals shall be turned into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation.”

And I wept.
Then at sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried him.

The neighbors mocked me, saying to one another:
“He is still not afraid!
Once before he was hunted down for execution
because of this very thing;
yet now that he has scarcely escaped,
here he is again burying the dead!”

While I am sure Biblical scholars more skilled than I will tell the actual meaning of this passage, I want to reflect on it in this light. May the Christians of Iraq follow the example of Tobit and continue in their faith despite the repercussions they may face.

Sandro Magister has a great post on the plight of Iraqi Christians. Read it here.

Chaldean Priest and Three Deacons Killed in Mosul

From Asia News:

An armed group gunned down and killed Fr Ragheed Ganni and three of his aides. The murder took place right after Sunday mass in front of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul where Father Ragheed was parish priest. Sources told AsiaNews that hours later the bodies were still lying in the street because no one dared retrieve them. Given the situation tensions in the area remain high.

For some time since the fall of Saddam Hussein Christians have become victims of what amounts to an open campaign of persecution often denounced by Chaldean and Orthodox bishops.

Father Ragheed himself had been targeted several times in previous attacks. The Church of the Holy Spirit has also been repeatedly attacked and bombed in the last few years, the last time occurred but a few months ago.

This morning Cardinal Bertone released the following statement on befalf of the Holy Father:

THE MOST REVEREND PAUL FARAJ RAHHO
BISHOP OF MOSSUL OF THE CHALDEANS

THE HOLY FATHER WAS DEEPLY SADDENED TO LEARN OF THE SENSELESS KILLING OF FATHER RAGHEED AZIZ GANNI AND SUBDEACONS BASMAN YOUSEF DAOUD, GHASAN BIDAWID AND WADID HANNA, AND HE ASKS YOU KINDLY TO CONVEY TO THEIR FAMILIES HIS HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES. HE WILLINGLY JOINS THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IN MOSSUL IN COMMENDING THEIR SOULS TO THE INFINITE MERCY OF GOD OUR LOVING FATHER AND IN GIVING THANKS FOR THEIR SELFLESS WITNESS TO THE GOSPEL. AT THE SAME TIME HE PRAYS THAT THEIR COSTLY SACRIFICE WILL INSPIRE IN THE HEARTS OF ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF GOOD WILL A RENEWED RESOLVE TO REJECT THE WAYS OF HATRED AND VIOLENCE, TO CONQUER EVIL WITH GOOD (ROM 12:21) AND TO COOPERATE IN HASTENING THE DAWN OF RECONCILIATION, JUSTICE AND PEACE IN IRAQ. TO THE FAMILIES AND TO ALL WHO MOURN THEIR DEAD IN FAITH AND IN THE HOPE WHICH DRAWS ITS CERTAINTY FROM THE RESURRECTION HIS HOLINESS CORDIALLY IMPARTS HIS APOSTOLIC BLESSING AS A PLEDGE OF CONSOLATION AND STRENGHT IN THE LORD.

CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE

Asia News also published the following article in memory of Fr. Ragheed, who worked closely with the news agency while he was a student in Rome.

Without Sunday, without the Eucharist the Christians in Iraq cannot survive”: that was how Fr Ragheed spoke of his community’s hope, a community that was used to facing death on a daily basis, that same death that yesterday afternoon faced him, on his way home from saying mass. After having fed his faithful with the Body and Blood of Christ, he gave his own blood, his own life for Iraq, for the future of his Church. This young priest had willingly, knowingly chosen to remain by the side of his parishioners from Holy Spirit parish in Mosul, judged the most dangerous, after Baghdad. His reasoning was simple: without him, without its pastor, his flock would have been lost. In the barbarity of suicide attacks and bombings, one thing at least was clear, and gave him the strength to resist: “Christ – Ragheed would say – challenger evil with his infinite love, he keeps us united and through the Eucharist he gifts us life, which the terrorists are trying to take away”.

He died yesterday, massacred by blind violence. Killed on his way home from Church, where his people, despite their decreasing numbers, bowed by fear and desperation, continued to come: “the young people – Ragheed told us just days ago – organized surveillance after the recent attacks against the parish, the kidnappings, the threats to religious; priests celebrate mass amidst the bombed out ruins; mothers worry as they see their children challenge danger to attend catechism with enthusiasm; the elderly come to entrust their fleeing families to God’s protection, they alone remain in their country where they have their roots and built their homes, refusing to flee. Exile for them is unimaginable”. Ragheed was one of them, a strong father figure who wanted to protect his children: “It is our duty not to give in to despair: God will listen to our prayers for peace in Iraq”:

In 2003 on finishing his studies in Rome, he decided to return to his country “that is where I belong, that is my place”. He also returned to help in the rebuilding of his nation, the rebuilding of a “free society”. He spoke of an Iraq full of hope with a captivating smile: “Saddam has fallen, we have elected a government, we have voted for a Constitution!” He organized theology courses for the lay faithful of Mosul; he worked with the young; he consoled disadvantaged families; this month he was in the grips of helping a small child with serious eye problems undergo surgery in Rome.

His testimony is of an enthusiastic faith. The target of a series of threats stretching back to 2004, he witnessed the pain of relatives and the loss of friends, and yet he carried on to the very end remembering that there was a sense to be found in that suffering, that carnage, that anarchy of violence: it was to be offered up. After an attack on his parish, on Palm Sunday last April 1st he said: “We empathise with Christ who entered Jerusalem in full knowledge that the consequence of His love for mankind was the cross. Thus while bullets smashed our Church windows, we offered up our sufferance as a sign of love for Christ”. “Each day we wait for the decisive attack – he said just weeks ago – but we will not stop celebrating mass; we will do it underground, where we are safer. I am encouraged in this decision by the strength of my parishioners. This is war, real war, but we hope to carry our cross to the very end with the help of Divine Grace”. And in the midst of the daily difficulties he himself marvelled at a growing awareness of “the great value of Sunday, the day we met the Risen Lord, the day of unity and of love between his community, of support and help”.

Then the bombings multiplied; the kidnappings of priests in Baghdad and Mosul became more frequent; Sunnis began to demand taxes from Christians to remain in their homes, or face their requisition by militants. Water and electricity grow scarce, telephones and communicating becomes difficult. Ragheed begins to grow tired, his enthusiasm weakens, to the point where in his last e-mail to AsiaNews, May 28 last, he admits: “We are on the verge of collapse”- And he tells of a bomb exploding in the Holy Spirit Church, on the feast of Pentecost May 27; of the “war” which broke out a week before, 7 car bombings, 10 explosions in swift succession, the three day curfew, “prisoners in our own home”, of not being able to celebrate the feast of the Ascension (May 20).

He pondered the path his country had taken: “In a sectarian and confessional Iraq, will there be any space for Christians? We have no support, no group who fights for our cause; we are abandoned in the midst of this disaster. Iraq has already been divided; it will never be the same. What is the future of our Church? Today it can barely be traced”.

But then the strength of his faith endures, a tired but solid faith: “I may be wrong, but I am certain about one thing, one single fact that is always true: that the Holy Spirit will enlighten people so that they may work for the good of humanity, in this world so full of evil”.

Dearest Ragheed, with a heart which cries in pain, you leave us your hope and your certainty. By taking you they aimed to wipe out the hope of Iraq’s Christians. Instead your martyrdom nourishes and gives new life to your community, to the Iraqi Church and the Church throughout the world. Thank you, grazie Ragheed.

It is too easy to forget the plight of the Christians of Iraq. They are greatly oppressed by the muslim controlled government. I pray for all the Christians in Iraq: may God give them the strength they need to endure the horrors which surround them and may they find comfort in their faith.