A GENUINE IRAQI MARTYR:

ARCHBISHOP PAULOS FARAJ RAHHO, Chaldean Bishop of Mosul, was found dead today, after having been kidnapped two weeks ago and held for an enormous ransom of weapons and money. He had just finished saying the Stations of the Cross at the Church of the Holy Spirit, and was about leave in a car with three unarmed companions, all of whom were killed when their car was attacked. The Archbishop was then kidnapped at gunpoint.

As a man in need of medication for a heart condition, it was thought that he might have died from his chronic ill health, but

Church officials said Thursday, however, that Archbishop Rahho was shot in the leg when he was abducted on Feb. 29. Gunmen sprayed his car with bullets, killed two bodyguards and shoved the archbishop into the trunk of a car, the church officials said. 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. [h/t New York Times]

Appeals from the Vatican and the Iraqi government for his safe return were ignored. If there were formal appeals from the U.S. government they did not make headlines, but American soldiers accompanied Iraqi special forces in the hunt for the Archbishop.

Authorities were tipped off by the Archbishop's murderers about the location of his body, which was found in a shallow grave outside Mosul. He had been dead for as much as five days.

Looks like a real trouble-maker, doesn't he? Oh, yeah, this guy had to go.

Gotta hand it to those geniuses in Al Qaeda-- they really know how to advance their cause. Dick Cheney got ahead of himself a few years ago (no, really?) , but it seems pretty clear that the rubbish at AQI have finally become bona fide 'dead-enders.' This was a desperate, pathetic pointless killing -- their stock-in-trade, actually, so no news there.

A statement of disgust and condemnation of this crime, issued by the Ramadan Foundation, a British organization of Muslim Youth, is welcomed -- let's hear more of this from you folks in the R.O.P. (Religion o' Peace)

For the repose of the soul of Archbishop Rahho:



Barring anything nuclear, Winefred bids farewell from now until the dawn of Resurrection.


Easter music of Jachet de Berchem -- O Jesu Christe