Confirmed: Mosul Archbishop was shot

Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop whose death we reported yesterday ("Kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop dead," Musings, March 13, 2008), was apparently shot either during or after his kidnapping, according to a recent report:

Kidnapping and Death

Late on February 29, 2008, according to a report given by the Catholic News Service, Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped from his car in the Al-Nur district of the city; his bodyguards and driver were killed. Ishtar TV said the kidnappers moved Rahho three times during the two weeks of captivity because the area where they were holding Rahho was raided three times. The kidnappers demanded that the Assyrian Christians contribute to the jihad, through jizya. The captors also demanded the release of Arab detainees and that they be paid three million dollars for Rahho's release.

On March 13, 2008, it was reported that the Archbishop's body had been found buried in a shallow grave near Mosul. Officials of the Chaldean Church in Iraq said they had received a call telling them where the body was buried. The cause of death was initially not clear. An official of the morgue in Mosul said the archbishop, who had health problems, including high blood pressure and diabetes, might have died of natural causes. Police at the Mosul morgue said the Archbishop appeared to have been dead a week and his body bore no bullet wounds. It is believed that the Archbishop was shot in the leg when he was abducted on February 29. According to church officials, Gunmen sprayed the Archbishop's car with bullets, killed two bodyguards and shoved the bishop into the trunk of a car. In the darkness, he managed to pull out his cellphone and call the church, telling officials not to pay a ransom for his release, they said. "He believed that this money would not be paid for good works and would be used for killing and more evil actions," the officials said. Other reports stated that also investigators believed the archbishop may have been shot at the time of the kidnapping.

However, Nineveh Deputy Governor Khasro Goran later confirmed the body did have gunshot wounds, specifically in the head. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho is believed to be the highest-ranking Chaldean Catholic clergyman to be killed in the current Iraq war.

According to the report, "Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly who broke down and wept during funeral services in Karamles, urged Assyrian Christians on Friday not to seek revenge for the death of the archbishop." On November 26, 2007, three months before he was found murdered, Archbishop Rahho said: "We, Christians of Mesopotamia, are used to religious persecution and pressures by those in power. After Constantine, persecution ended only for Western Christians, whereas in the East threats continued. Even today we continue to be a Church of martyrs." How well he knew the possibility of a Baptism of Blood and Crown of Martyrdom. How distant such possibilities seem for us today in the West, when even the sentiments of Fr. Frederick W. Faber seem foreign, when in one of his hymns, he referenced the experience of Catholics in Britain and Ireland: "... How sweet would be their children's fate, if they, like them, could die for Thee. Faith of our fathers' Holy Faith, we would be true to thee till death."

May he rest in peace; and may God protect his little flock in Mosel and bring peace to Iraq.