IRAQI ARCHBISHOP SPENDS SEVENTH DAY WITH ABDUCTORS

...Pope Benedict, One Church Campaign,Others call for Prayer, Release.

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, 65, is today spending his seventh day in the custody of unknown abductors, who snatched him on the evening of Friday February 29 in Mosul, Iraq. His driver and two body guards were killed in the process. A spokesman for the Nineveh province police, Iraqi Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul Sattar, confirmed both the killings and the abduction
Agency reports, quoting a local priest, Father Najeeb Mikhail, said his abductors had demanded an unspecified huge sum of money for his release and have refused to consider any reduction in the ransom.
Calls for his release, including two separate appeals, on Saturday and Sunday, by Pope Benedict XVI have so far gone unheeded, prompting a worldwide call for prayer to save the ailing cleric.
Reports said Rahho ran into an ambush by some armed men in four cars at about 5:30 p.m. on his way home shortly after leading the congregation in praying the Stations of the Cross at the Holy Spirit Parish in Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad. Mosul is the biblical Nineveh.
Eyewitnesses said the cars blocked Rahho's vehicle and the men shot and killed Faris Gorgis Khoder, his driver and the two guards simply identified as Ramy and Samir, before speeding off with Rahho.
Describing the brutal nature of the murder of the priest’s companions, one of the mourners at the funeral for the three men the following day in the village of Karamlis, 15 miles east of Mosul, said of the corpses: “All their faces were gone when we saw them. They were without eyes, without noses and without mouths." They each left behind a wife and three children, according to Father Bashar Warda, dean of St. Peter's Seminary in Erbil.
Father Warda who spoke to Compass Direct said that no one had been able to speak with the kidnapped archbishop since his abduction, making it difficult to know whether he remained alive. He expressed anxiety about the bishop’s health: “his health is one of the issues that concerns us because it is not good, and his medicine is not with him…Prayer is needed."
Pope Benedict XVIII had led the call for prayer in a Vatican statement which said the pope was saddened by what it described as “this new despicable act” and “a premeditated criminal act”. “The Holy Father” continued the statement “asks the universal Church to join in his fervent prayer so that reason and humanity prevails in the kidnappers and Monsignor Rahho is returned to his flock soon…The pope felt close to the Iraqi people, particularly the minority Christians, and was praying that the whole country could find the path to reconciliation and peace.”
Also calling for prayer, Archbishop Andreos Abouna, an aide to Iraq’s Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the church, who said he did not know who was behind the kidnapping of the 65-year-old archbishop. “We pray for his release as soon as possible,” he said, noting that “this act of abduction against a Christian clergy member will increase our fears and worries about the situation of Christians in Iraq.”
Another call for prayer came from Bishop Rabban al-Qas of the nearby city of Irbil who described the abductors of his 65-year-old colleague, who was ordained archbishop of Mosul in 2001 as “terrorists”. He told AsiaNews, the Rome-based Catholic news service, “we don’t know what physical condition he is in…It’s a terrible time for our church - pray for us.”
Condemnation and calls for action have also not been in short supply.

Hours after the abduction, The Assyrian Universal Alliance, in a statement condemned “in the strongest terms possible the vicious and cowardly act of terrorism perpetrated against innocent civilians of Nineveh plains-Northern Iraq, in which many innocent people were victimized. This act of genocidal barbarism is inexcusable. Our sympathies and prayers are with the victims, their families and friends. We call for the immediate release of the Father Faraj Raho”

In his own statement, the United Nations envoy to Iraq Staffan de Mistura said it was “appalling that these attacks on communities that have lived peacefully together in north Iraq for centuries are continuing,” and called on the government to do more to protect minorities. Recalling that “the archbishop of Mosul is the latest in a long line of members of the Christian and other communities in Iraq to be killed or abducted,” he urged the government “redouble its efforts to protect religious minorities.”
The European Union has also lent its voice to the spate of condemnation of the Chaldean Archbishop Faraj Rahho’s abduction. Its Slovenian presidency, in a statement, condemned the kidnapping and called for his immediate and unconditional release. The Presidency expressed its solidarity with all Iraqis mainly Chaldeans. And urged Iraqi authorities to do their utmost in order to secure the bishop’s release..
On his part, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has not only expressed concern over the abduction, he has ordered the interior ministry and security forces of the northern Nineveh province to intensify efforts to release the kidnapped Catholic archbishop. In a letter to the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad and spiritual leader of Iraq’s Roman Catholics, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, he expressed “deep sadness and grief” over Archbishop Rahho’s kidnapping.
In a statement on Tuesday, Maliki’s office said, “The prime minister has issued an order to the interior minister and all security officials of Nineveh province to follow the case and work very hard to release (Rahho) as soon as possible.”
The statement added, “The Christian sect in Iraq is one of the basic components of Iraqi society and can never be parted from its people and civilisation. Any assault on its sons represents an assault on all Iraqis.”
Security forces have since fanned out across the northern Iraqi city of Mosul searching for the archbishop. A senior police officer who did not want his identity revealed said, “a special police team has tightened security especially around the Al-Nur district.”

At press time, it was not clear how much closer to rescuing the archbishop’ release the police were, nor had there been much known contact with either the archbishop or his abductors.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian church unity group, The One Church Campaign has called on Nigerian Christians to join in praying for the safety and speedy release of Archbishop Rahho, stating that the church is one body and whatever touches one part affects the whole.