This afternoon, in front of the chaldean church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul, the parish priest, Father Raghiid Ganni, and three diacons have been killed.
By 20.30 Mosul time no one, neither police forces, could get near the church in the area of Hay Al-Noor to recover the corpses because it is still to dangerous.
By 20.30 Mosul time no one, neither police forces, could get near the church in the area of Hay Al-Noor to recover the corpses because it is still to dangerous.
Updates:
The murder, that a chaldean source has defined a “cold blood” one, happened soon after the afternoon mass. Father Ganni was leaving the church by car together with three sub-deacons when, at the corner of the street, armed men stopped the car and shot at its occupants.
By now only the christian names of the three sub-deacons are known: Wahid, Ghasan and Basman, and one of them, Ghasan, was cousin of the killed priest.
Some sources of the church speak of a clear message to the Chaldean Church Synod that began only two days ago in Al-Qosh, 25 km from Mosul, and to the Vatican, considering the presence at the Synod of the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr. Francis Assisi Chullikat.
After Baghdad the situation is worsening day by day for Iraqi Christians also in Mosul and the murder of a priest will spread other terror in the community that could be pushed in this way to leave the city.
Many Iraqi priests hope the Vatican will consider this message, it’s time, they say, “for Rome to intervene, for the Pope to speak aloud about the tragedy of Iraqi Christians,” a community almost ignored by the international one, whose tragic fate is little discussed in the name of the “political correctness” according to which to speak in favour of a community means to speak against another one.
Updates:
By 22.00 Mosul time the bodies of Father Ganni and the three su-deacons have been laid in the Holy Spirit Church. “He is a martyr” said a chaldean source from Erbil referring to Fr. Ganni being the second priest killed in Iraq since 2003. The first one was Father Paul Iskandar, a Syriac Orthodox priest killed in Mosul in 2006, while Father Ganni is the first catholic priest killed in Iraq.
The murder, that a chaldean source has defined a “cold blood” one, happened soon after the afternoon mass. Father Ganni was leaving the church by car together with three sub-deacons when, at the corner of the street, armed men stopped the car and shot at its occupants.
By now only the christian names of the three sub-deacons are known: Wahid, Ghasan and Basman, and one of them, Ghasan, was cousin of the killed priest.
Some sources of the church speak of a clear message to the Chaldean Church Synod that began only two days ago in Al-Qosh, 25 km from Mosul, and to the Vatican, considering the presence at the Synod of the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr. Francis Assisi Chullikat.
After Baghdad the situation is worsening day by day for Iraqi Christians also in Mosul and the murder of a priest will spread other terror in the community that could be pushed in this way to leave the city.
Many Iraqi priests hope the Vatican will consider this message, it’s time, they say, “for Rome to intervene, for the Pope to speak aloud about the tragedy of Iraqi Christians,” a community almost ignored by the international one, whose tragic fate is little discussed in the name of the “political correctness” according to which to speak in favour of a community means to speak against another one.
Updates:
By 22.00 Mosul time the bodies of Father Ganni and the three su-deacons have been laid in the Holy Spirit Church. “He is a martyr” said a chaldean source from Erbil referring to Fr. Ganni being the second priest killed in Iraq since 2003. The first one was Father Paul Iskandar, a Syriac Orthodox priest killed in Mosul in 2006, while Father Ganni is the first catholic priest killed in Iraq.
