Gunmen have kidnapped
the archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in the northern
Iraqi city of Mosul and killed three of his aides, his church
says.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho
was seized as he left a church in the eastern al-Nour district, it
added.
Pope Benedict XVI deplored the
kidnapping as a "despicable" crime.
Most of Iraq's estimated
700,000 Christians are Chaldeans - Catholics who are autonomous
from Rome but recognise the Pope's authority. <!-- E SF
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Many have been targeted since
the 2004 invasion by Sunni extremists groups.
In January, bombs exploded
outside three Chaldean and Assyrian churches in Mosul. Several
Christian priests have also been kidnapped or killed during the
past five years.
'Fervent
prayer'
Archbishop Rahho had just left
the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul, where he had been leading
afternoon prayers, when his car was ambushed by armed men, a church
spokesman said.
The gunmen opened fire on the
car, killing his two companions and driver, before kidnapping the
archbishop, he added.
Bishop Rabban al-Qas of the
nearby city of Irbil said his 65-year-old colleague, who was
ordained archbishop of Mosul in 2001, was "in the hands of
terrorists".
"But we don't know what
physical condition [he is in]," he told the Rome-based Catholic
news service, AsiaNews.
"It's a terrible time for our
church - pray for us," he added.
The kidnappers have reportedly
communicated their demands, but these have not been made
public.
The Vatican later issued a
statement saying the Pope was saddened by "this despicable act"
which "touches the whole of the church in that country".
"The Holy Father 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," it said.
The incident comes less than
year after a Chaldean priest and three sub-deacons were gunned down
the same church in Mosul after celebrating Sunday Mass.
The Syrian Catholic archbishop
of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa, was kidnapped at gunpoint in
2005, but was released after one day without a ransom having been
paid.
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