Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Local Catholics pray for kidnapped Iraqi archbishop
Local Catholics pray for kidnapped Iraqi archbishop
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 7, 2008
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, eparch for Chaldean Catholics in the eastern half of the United States, stands in front of a picture of the church in his home village of Telkaif, near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. He is skeptical about hopes for post-war gratitude from Iraqis. (CNS photo by Robert Delaney, Michigan Catholic) (April 4, 2003) See WAR-IBRAHIM April 3, 2003. | Detroit – Prayers were said in local Chaldean Catholic churches last Sunday for the Chaldean archbishop kidnapped in Iraq last Friday, and the three people with him who were killed.
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was kidnapped “outside the same church, and I can even say at the same corner, where a priest and three subdeacons were killed last June,” Southfield-based Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim said Monday.
During the civil and religious strife of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, Archbishop Rahho has been “a good example of fraternity, charity and love,” Bishop Ibrahim continued.
“He is well-known to the Christians and the Muslims of the area, and a lot of Muslims are asking for his release. In fact, it is leaders of the Muslim community who are handling the negotiations for his release,” said the bishop, who had been in contact with Chaldean Church officials by telephone at least twice a day since the kidnapping.
He said the negotiators are insisting on speaking with the archbishop before discussing any ransom terms, but the kidnappers had so far refused to let them speak to him.
“They don’t want to commit themselves to anything until they are sure he is still alive,” the bishop added.
Bishop Ibrahim heads the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, the diocese for Chaldean Catholics in the eastern half of the United States. Most of his flock live in southeast Michigan, where there are six Chaldean parishes.
He said he has known Archbishop Rahho since before 1960. “I was two years ahead of him at the Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary in Mosul,” the bishop says.
“He has lived all his life in Mosul. He was born there, ordained for that diocese, and then was made its archbishop,” Bishop Ibrahim said.
There used to be more than 100,000 Chaldean Catholics in Mosul Province, though that number might be considerably less now, because so many people have been fleeing to safer parts of the country or fleeing Iraq altogether, the bishop continued.
Few Christians live in the city of Mosul, “because they are very fanatical Muslims there,” Bishop Ibrahim said.
Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped late last Friday after he finished leading the Way of the Cross at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul.
He had just left the church, and was in his car with his driver and two bodyguards when the kidnappers attacked.
Although there had been no claim of responsibility for the kidnapping and murders as of Monday afternoon, Bishop Ibrahim said he believes it was the work of the same people who killed Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni and subdeacons Basman Yousef Daoud, Wadid Hanna and Ghasan Bida Wid after leaving the same church after having celebrated Sunday Mass on June 3.
The armed men who blocked their car forced the wife of one of the subdeacons out of the car. Once she was away from the vehicle the armed men opened fire on Fr. Ganni and the three subdeacons. Subdeacon is an ordination rank lower that of deacon in most Eastern Catholic churches.
The militants then placed explosives around the car to prevent anyone from retrieving the four bodies. Later that night, authorities finally managed to defuse the explosives and retrieve the bodies.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI appealed last Sunday for peace and security in Iraq.
“May those who hold in their hands the fate of the Iraqi people increase their efforts so that through the commitment and wisdom of everyone, (Iraqis) may regain peace and security and not be denied the future that is rightfully theirs,” the pope said to people gathered for his noonday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.
Chaldean Bishop Rabban al Qas of Arbil told the Rome-based missionary news service AsiaNews last Friday, “It’s a terrible time for our Church; pray for us.”
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq, told Vatican Radio March 2 violence against Christians “destroys the trust and brotherhood” between Iraqis.
But he said numerous Muslim leaders have made appeals and are working for the archbishop’s release. “The people in Mosul live in fear,” he said.
Archbishop Sako said the pope’s appeal resonates throughout all of Iraq “because when he speaks it is balanced,” which is noticed and appreciated by Muslims leaders there. After praying the Angelus, the pope said it was with “deep sadness I follow the dramatic news” of the archbishop’s abduction.
He said he was adding his voice to the appeal of the Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, to quickly release the 65-year-old archbishop who is in a “precarious condition of health” and reportedly must take medications daily.
The pope said his prayers were with the “three young men who were with him at the moment of the kidnapping and were killed.”
He said his thoughts and prayers were also with “the entire Church in Iraq and in particular the Chaldean Church, struck a harsh blow once more.” Pope Benedict also encouraged “the priests and faithful to be strong and firm in hope.”
A Vatican statement released last Friday said the archbishop’s abduction and the killing of his aides was a “despicable act.”
“The Holy Father asks the universal Church to join in his fervent prayer that reason and humanity will prevail in the perpetrators of the attack,” the Vatican statement said.
The Vatican said the fact that the archbishop was abducted immediately after leading a Way of the Cross service indicated that the attack was premeditated.
— Contributing to this story were Carol Glatz and John Thavis of Catholic News Service in Rome.
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