The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was buried today, two weeks after he was kidnapped in the troubled northern city of Mosul.Hundreds gathered at the church in the village of Kramleis on the plains of northern Nineveh province to memorialize the most senior Christian clergyman targeted by armed groups in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion five years ago.
Since the war began, Sunni Arab insurgents have attacked members of the country's Christian minority, often based on the belief that community members have served as agents for the Americans.
"I ask the people of the church to be steadfast and patient," Iraq's Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, told mourners in an emotional ceremony. "He became a martyr because of his great faith, and his love for his service."
Nineveh Police chief Wathiq Hamdani said Rahhoo had apparently died of poor health and not a gunshot wound as police had previously reported. Rahho, in his late 60s, had suffered a heart attack a few years earlier.
Gunmen grabbed him Feb. 29 after he had finished celebrating the Stations of the Cross, killing three of his bodyguards. Hamdani said the kidnappers had demanded a $1 million- or $2 million-ransom.
The U.S. military and U.S. embassy here blamed the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq for the archbishop's death.
Rahho, in an interview, said he thought Christians in Mosul encountered great risks because of their faith, which militant Sunnis consider inferior to Islam. "Everyone is suffering from this war irrespective of religious affiliation, but in Mosul, Christians face starker choices," Rahho said.
In June, a priest and three deacons were fatally shot outside their church in Mosul. Two priests were kidnapped and released in October in the northern city. Several of the city's churches and affiliated buildings were targeted in January bombings.
Before the American-led invasion of Iraq, the Christian population here was estimated to number about 800,000.
But many have since fled the country after seeing their churches attacked and fellow Christians assassinated or expelled from their homes by Islamic extremists.
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