Kidnapped Archbishop killed in Iraq

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho [REUTERS/Paul Haring/Catholic News Service]

CAFOD is deeply shocked and saddened by the news of the death of Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of the Iraqi city of Mosul

Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped after celebrating Mass in Mosul on February 29. Gunmen attacked his car killing his driver and two guards.

The Archbishop is just one of a number of Chaldean clerics to be abducted in Iraq since the US- led invasion in March 2003.

So far nobody has claimed responsibility for his death.

Senseless violence

Colette Fearon, CAFOD's Middle East regional manager, says: "We send our sympathies to Archbishop Rahho's family and friends and all those whose lives he touched."

The Vatican has also issued a statement expressing its sorrow at the death of Archbishop Rahho. Only last Sunday Pope Benedict XVI had appealed for the Archbishop's release.

"Unfortunately, the most senseless and unjustified violence continues to be inflicted on the Iraqi people, and especially on the small Christian community to whom the Pope holds in his prayers in this time of deep sadness.

"This tragic event underscored once more and with more urgency the duty
of all, and in particular of the international community, to bring peace
to a country that has been so tormented."

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