Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul
March 13, 2008, 9:59 am
Posted by David Gibson
AsiaNews is reporting that the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Archbishop Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped last February 29 after the Stations of the Cross, is dead. This is a terrible drama that has been largely lost under the wave of other news, often more ridiculous than sublime. I haven’t seen confirmation elsewhere, but will keep checking.
The AP has it now: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4443475
BBC News also reports his death.
I saw Condi Rice on CSPAN last night telling Congress that “everything was being done” about this and that they were working closely with the Iraqi givernment to assure protection of Christian worshippers.
Then we heard this horrible news on NPR this morning.
Clearly it underscores the urgency of better Christian Muslim relations and the effort of BXVI to met with the Muslim scholar reps in November seems far distant.
Our own efforts with the Maliki government seem so small (while Iran gets the red carpet treatment in Bagdhad”s halls of power.
This from “Asia News:”
“The Chaldean archbishop of Mosul is dead. Archbishop Faraj Rahho was kidnapped last February 29 after the Stations of the Cross. His kidnappers gave word of his death, indicating to the mediators where they could recover the body of the 67-year-old prelate. “It is a heavy Cross for our Church, ahead of Easter”, Bishop Rabban of Arbil tells AsiaNews in response to the news. Leaders of the Chaldean Church, including Bishop Shlemon Warduni, brought the body to the hospital in Mosul to ascertain the causes, still unknown, of the archbishop’s death. The funeral will be held tomorrow in the nearby city of Karamles. Archbishop Rahho will be buried near Fr Ragheed, his priest and secretary killed by a terrorist brigade on June 3, 2007, while leaving the church after celebrating Mass.”
Father Ragheed, who was killed after celebrating Sunday Mass, would encourage his people to assemble for Eucharist, despite the dangers and threats, by quoting the words of martyrs of the early Church: “without the Eucharist we cannot survive.”
May this faithful bishop and priest share the banquet feast of the Lamb.
Amen. A reminder of what the cost of discipleship is for so many of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Amen
Bob Nunz:
“Better Christian Muslim relations” will, tragically, do nothing to stop such violence as this–a relatively small but highly determined faction within Islam does NOT want better relations with Christianity or any other non-Muslims … they want us to convert, submit, or die, and they are quite ready to bring about our deaths should we fail onm the first two points (and do not be decived–even converting would be no panacea, since they mostly kill other muslims whom they deem not rigidly muslim enough)
Like Hitler’s SS, they are fanatics for whom no amount of mercy can be expected and no amount of reason can convince them to act otherwise. The only thing they understand and appreciate is brute force–and the only thing that will stop them will be to kill as many of them as we can or to capture as many as we can and otherwise disrupt their actions so much that they ultimately find all their efforts blocked, all their plans thwarted (and even then they might be satisfied just with killing as many people as they can in a nihilistic orgy)
Robert, when you were shaving this morning, did you happen to look in the mirror?
Unagidon,
I’m sure this is posted far too long after anyone else has bothered to read this thread–but it’s quite interesting you should mention shaving … that’s one of the things that the islamic extremists tend to forbid in places such as Taliban Afghanistan when they come to power, and why we must fight–and, yes, kill–them wherever and whenever we can. It’s a harsh world–I didn’t make it but I’ll not surrender it to the likes of them.
Dear Robert,
You mention mercy and reason, so let’s talk about that for a moment.
The Christian point of view about mercy is that like compassion, it is not dependent upon whether the recipient “deserves” it or not. To be able to bestow mercy or compassion, one has to make an assumption of reason, which is to say, the people that you want to kill because they are mad dogs actually possess reason and have reasons for what they do just as you do. Their reasons may not be good ones and they may be utterly misguided. But you simply dehumanize them by claiming that they possess no reason at all. Further, you undercut mercy and compassion utterly. Your position here is, in short, not a Christian one.
Since you dehumanize these people, you are also unable to see what it is that might drive people to be the way that they are. Since you seem to categorize them as pure evil, their pure evil seems to just happen. You have referred to the fact that they are Muslim as a possible source for their evil, but in fact you don’t know, nor do you care. So you can’t see if their reasons are half truths or non-truths because you have determined that these people are non-human. If you can’t see that there might be something to what they believe about the world and that there is at least a half truth behind at least some of their grievances, then you will never be able address them and worse, you will never be able to see whether there is any fault on your side.
I think your fear is real, but what also gets to me is that you don’t seem to actually know anything about these or what they think or what they are doing. When looking at Muslims in general, you don’t seem to be able to distinguish between Sunni or Shiite (or the other branches), nor between nationalities, classes, political interests or political movements. You don’t seem to know anything about their history other than your contention that it is somehow particularly violent. In short, you don’t grant them any of the distinctions that you would grant to yourself and the people around you.
So in fact, you are purely and simply a bigot. I am not sure if you are a racial bigot, but you are certainly a religious bigot. In advocating what you are advocating, coupled with your ignorance of who these people are (much less what they think) you are in fact describing yourself in your post. It is you who are the “fanatic(s) for whom no amount of mercy can be expected and no amount of reason can convince them to act otherwise. The only thing they understand and appreciate is brute force.” And you are proposing brute force.
I would normally have suggested that it might help you to actually read something about them and their history. But I think now that you have a problem with the concept of mercy and compassion. Perhaps you should start there.
I think our model here should be Jesus. When He was being crucified, he did not lash out in self defense. I believe that his position was “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He knew what his killers were thinking and this statement of His shows that He saw the logic of it from their own point of view. They were wrong of course, but even on the cross, Christ does not refer to them as though they are animals. You might think that one has to be Christ to show this kind of mercy and compassion. However,
Matt. 5:44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
You might profit by thinking about what this means in your case.