BAGHDAD (AP) — A Chaldean Catholic archbishop found dead after a kidnapping was remembered Friday as a man of peace beloved by all Iraqis.
Mourners carrying flowers and olive branches wept and wailed as Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's coffin was carried down the streets of a village outside Mosul in northern Iraq. They were led by a church official carrying a wooden cross affixed with Rahho's picture.
Rahho was kidnapped by unknown gunmen two weeks ago, just minutes after performing Mass in Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold. Three of his aides were killed during the kidnapping, one of many attacks on the country's tiny Christian minority since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
His body was found Thursday.
"He was a man of honesty, loyalty and peace," Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly told mourners. "He was loved by all Iraqi people regardless of their sectarian background."
Rahho was the most senior Catholic cleric in Iraq after Delly — who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in November.
President Bush, the pope and Iraq's prime minister condemned Rahho's kidnapping, which U.S. officials in Baghdad called "one more savage attempt by a barbaric enemy to sow strife and discord."
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been targeted by Islamic extremists who label them "crusaders" loyal to U.S. troops. Militants have attacked churches, priests and businesses owned by Christians, many of whom have fled the country in a trend mirrored across the Islamic world.
Although government officials both here and in Iraq are making a connection between Archbishop Rahho's death and the war, we should remember above all that Rahho was man of peace, as Cardinal Delly is quoted above as saying. It is indeed difficult to fathom the killing of an archbishop in any era, but in our era it serves only to point to other signs of the times.
As we pause to join the Christians of Iraq at this difficult time, our prayers should be for world peace and for an end to the senseless violence and the evil, certainly the sin, of war.
It seems salt to a wound to hear Bush's name mentioned in any way in this matter. I hope to God that D.C. folks will be smart enough to shut down his designs on Iran. (It's all been like jumping up and down for Barrabas' release, and then realizing what we've done....)
We didn't need the death of a holy Archbishop of the church to tell us the American "presence" --somehow aligned with Christianity!-- is resented. It is not time for a holy war.. it is time for a holy peace.
Thank you for this article. May the Archbishop greet the risen Lord in all our names, with the love he lived. This has been the most searing Lent for Chaldean Catholics and all minority Catholics in the mideast. We will remember them.
Posted by: JustMe | March 14, 2008 at 01:46 PM