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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Local Chaldean community mourns death of Iraqi archbishop

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 21, 2008

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim blesses the congregation of Our Lady of Chaldeans Cathedral of Mother of God Parish in Southfield prior to the Gospel reading on March 14. The Mass was dedicated to Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who died at the hands of terrorists in Mosul, Iraq.

Southfield — The death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, at the hands of terrorists has shaken members of the local Chaldean Catholic community, many of whom knew the late archbishop.

Archbishop Rahho’s body was recovered March 13 following a violent kidnapping by terrorists on Feb. 29, which claimed four other lives.

“We are all from the native place. We are from Mosul, all of us,” said Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, based in Southfield.

The Michigan eparchy is the diocese for Chaldean Catholics in the eastern United States. They number approximately 100,000 and most of them live in southeastern Michigan, where there are six Chaldean parishes. A memorial Mass for Archbishop Rahho was to have been celebrated March 18 at 6 p.m. at Our Lady of Chaldeans Cathedral of Mother of God Parish in Southfield.

“He was believing in the fraternity of all human kind,” Bishop Ibrahim said of the late archbishop. “He was preaching the forgiveness for everyone. He was preaching to take care of each other, without regarding to the faith or the name or the gender.”

Bishop Ibrahim said Archbishop Rahho spent his whole life in Mosul, and was close to his diocese.

“He was very close to his flock. Very close,” he said. “Especially to those who were marginalized — poor people, handicapped people. He was very good with the Muslims.”

Following the recovery of Archbishop Rahho’s body, the Chaldean Catholic community in metro Detroit dedicated their 6 p.m. Friday Lenten Mass at Mother of God Church to the late archbishop. Bishop Ibrahim celebrated the Mass.

Fr. Manuel Boji, rector of Mother of God Parish, said Archbishop Rahho’s death has resonated among Chaldeans.

“We’re a small Church, for sure it has a big impact, even for the younger generation,” Fr. Boji said.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Members of Mother of God Parish listen to Bishop Ibrahim during the Gospel reading. Many in the community voiced sadness and outrage at the death of Bishop Rahho.

He added that the archbishop’s faith is what made him a target of the terrorists.

“He was kidnapped and he was killed because of his faith,” Fr. Boji said. “He was a type of person that he felt always that this could happen, because of the sensitivity of the situation where he was living.”

Many in the worshipping community at Mother of God last week mourned the loss of Archbishop Rahho.

“It’s very, very sad. All the community is sad,” said 45-year-old Dina Boless, a parishioner entering the church for the liturgy last Friday.

Though she never met the archbishop personally, Boless said the community is very close to its spiritual leaders.

“He is still our father, and we love them all,” Boless said.

Some in the community voiced their frustration with the war in Iraq, and especially how President George W. Bush’s administration is handling the war.

Wally Yelda, 45, a parish council member at Mother of God, echoed a common sentiment that Christians in Iraq are not being protected.

“The U.S. government should step in and protect them,” Yelda said, referring to Christian leaders. “Who are they protecting? What are they doing there?”

He said the death of Archbishop Rahho at the hands of terrorists is a “big tragedy” for the community, and that the faithful can only pray for the safety of the Church in Iraq.

“We are going to have to pray for this not to happen — and I’m sure God will be with us,” Yelda said.

Still, others in the community wished some action could be taken to stop the violence against Christians.

“We are very sad, but what can we do?” said one woman, who would only give her first name, Jan. “We wish we could stop the whole thing. It’s not necessary to have all three people and the bishop killed like that.”

Roman Catholic bishops from around the world, including Detroit’s Cardinal Adam Maida, joined the Chaldean community in mourning.

“The number of Christian leaders martyred in Iraq is alarming and unacceptable,” Cardinal Maida said in a March 13 release, which noted that the archbishop is the ninth Chaldean cleric to be killed in Iraq since 2006.

“(Archbishop Rahho) was a good shepherd whose life was needlessly sacrificed by extremists,” the cardinal added.

Bishop Ibrahim, speaking of the violent kidnapping and death of the archbishop, said the tragedy, along with the lack of protection of Christians in Iraq, throws into question the destiny of Christians in the country.

“No one is defending us,” Bishop Ibrahim said. “They are killing Christians because they are Christians.”

He said the United States, and particularly the administration of President George W. Bush, is responsible for the terrorism and killing of Christians, and currently is ignoring the problem. “We know that before the invasion of the Americans in Iraq, (terrorism) was no such a thing,” he said. “Christians and Muslims were living together, exactly like brothers and sisters, and that’s it. But since the invasion, everything changes.”

He noted that the Bush administration made no formal statement about the kidnapping of Archbishop Rahho. Only after the archbishop’s body was recovered did the administration acknowledge the situation and decry the Church leader’s death.

“Somebody has to be responsible,” the bishop said. “Since the Americans are occupying Iraq, they have the responsibility of the security of every Iraqi, and in the first place minorities. I am not saying the Christians only — but they are doing nothing for them.”