Kidnapped Iraq archbishop dead: Church officials

 

Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, has been found dead, Church officials in Rome and Baghdad said on Thursday.
 
It was not clear if he died as a result of his precarious health or if he was killed, Church officials added.

 

Pope Benedict was immediately informed and was “profoundly moved and saddened,” the Vatican said. The Pope, in a telegram to Iraqi Church leaders, condemned it as “an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being.”

 

The Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican said it was “a sad day for all Iraqis regardless of their religion” and that the kidnappers were murderers whether they had killed him or not.

 

“Archbishop Rahho is dead. We found his lifeless body near Mosul. The kidnappers had buried him,” Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad was quoted as telling SIR, the news agency of the Italian Bishops Conference.

The Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, confirmed the news. “Yes, he died,” he told Reuters in Baghdad.

 

SIR quoted Warduni as saying the kidnappers had told Iraqi church officials on Wednesday that Rahho was very ill and, later that day, that he was dead.

 

But police in Baghdad said the body appeared to have been dead for at least a week and had started to decompose. They said there were no bullet wounds and were checking how he died.

 

The archbishop was wearing black trousers and a blue shirt.

 

 

Rahho was seized on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, killing his driver and two guards.

 

“This morning they called us to tell us that they had buried him. Some of our young people followed the indications that the kidnappers had given to reach the site,” the agency quoted Warduni as saying.

 

“They dug there and found the bishop lifeless. We still don”t know if he died of causes linked to his precarious health or if he was killed. The kidnappers only told us that he was dead,” he said.

 

Albert Edward Ismail Yelda, Iraqi”s ambassador to the Vatican, said: “I think that he was murdered because he was kidnapped while he was alive and now he is dead so, in a sense it is a murder one way or the other.”

 

“This is a sign to the international community to continue supporting the Iraqi government in order to maintain peace and stability as well as prevent terrorists from neighboring countries from entering Iraq,” he told Reuters.

Chaldeans belong to a branch of the Roman Catholic Church that practices an ancient Eastern rite and form the biggest Christian community in Iraq.

 

“All of us had continued to pray and hope for his release, which the Pope had repeatedly urged,” Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement shortly after news of the death.

 

“Unfortunately the most absurd and unjustified violence continues to strike the Iraqi people and particularly the small Christian community,” Lombardi said.

 

“Our hope is that this tragic event will underscore and reinforce everybody”s commitment, and particularly that of the international community, to bring peace to this troubled country,” he said.

 

Picture: Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho attends a press conference in Rome in this November 23, 2007 file photo. Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, has been found dead, Church officials in Rome and Baghdad said on March 13, 2008. It was not clear if he died as a result of his precarious health or if he was killed, Church officials added.