Cardinal Delly at Archbishop's Funeral Urges Peace
Mar 15, 2008
World Leaders Join in Condemning Death of Kidnapped Prelate.
MOSUL, Iraq, MARCH 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A weeping Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly told Iraqis that they must follow a path of peace, as he celebrated today the funeral Mass of Mosul's archbishop, found dead Thursday after having been kidnapped two weeks ago.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, 65, was kidnapped after celebrating the Way of the Cross on Feb. 29. His two guards and driver were killed.
Cardinal Delly told mourners: "The people of the church should be self-restrained and patient."
The cardinal said Archbishop Rahho was "brave, deeply faithful to the service of the Church. He spent his life serving the Church honestly and peacefully. He was one of those who died and shed their blood for the sake of duty."
Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Babylon of the Chaldeans told L'Osservatore Romano that Christians and Muslims alike are mourning the death of the prelate.
"Christians and Muslims," he said, "are very sorrowful and bereaved, but the hope offered us by the faith supports us in these moments that are so terrible."
Messages of condolence and outrage came from civil and religious leaders around the world, including Benedict XVI.
The Pope's secretary of state said: "The suffering of the Christians is very grave and with this inhuman action, they have arrived to the threshold of desperation, but the hope remains of God's help and the value of the blood of martyrs, which is always a seed of new resources and energies.
"We hope, as the Pope has said in his telegram and as will be repeated in these days, that in the mosaic of such diverse peoples, ethnic groups and religions that make up Iraq, all the positive forces will unite to build a new future for this people so afflicted by this war that does not obtain any results."
Shock and sorrow
Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S episcopal conference, expressed "profound shock and sorrow" on behalf of the U.S. bishops.
In a letter to Cardinal Delly, Cardinal George called the killing "callous" and one which "demonstrates the particularly harsh realities faced by Christians in Iraq and the lack of security faced by all Iraqis."
Cardinal George offered prayers of consolation to the Chaldean Catholic patriarch and for the Church in Iraq, and assured him that the U.S. bishops stood in solidarity with him.
Bishop Crispian Hollis, chair of the Department of International Affairs for the episcopal conference of England and Wales, said: "I join with all those in Iraq and elsewhere who mourn for the archbishop. Archbishop Rahho's abduction and death represent the latest blow against a Christian community that is undergoing an ordeal by persecution, and my prayers and thoughts are with Iraq's Christians, particularly in Mosul, as they struggle to live in faith."
It is still unclear the exact cause of death of the archbishop. He suffered poor health and reportedly needed daily medication. When his body was found Thursday, after a phone call from kidnappers alerting of its whereabouts, he had already been dead for a few days.
Monsignor Raban al Qas, a representative of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, said that the archbishop had not been shot. "We don't know if he was tortured to death, or if he died of natural causes," he said.
U.S. President George Bush added his voice to those denouncing the slaying.
"I send my condolences to the Chaldean community and the people of Iraq on the death of Archbishop Rahho," Bush said. "I deplore the despicable act of violence committed against the archbishop of Mosul. The terrorists will continue to lose in Iraq because they are savage and cruel. Their utter disregard for human life, demonstrated by this murder [...] is turning the Iraqi people against them."
Cardinal Delly at Archbishop's Funeral Urges Peace