Source: SIR
On Saturday, 14th March, in the Church of Saint Paul in Mosul, the Patriarchal Vicar of Baghdad, Mgr Shlemon Warduni, is to celebrate a Mass in memory of the archbishop of the city, Mgr Paulos Faraj P. Raho, one year after his death. Mgr Raho was kidnapped on 28 February 2008 and was found dead on 13 March in Mosul.
“I want to recall his courage, like that of many other Christians who had given up their lives for Christ,” Mgr Warduni told the SIR. “The faithful in his parish and in Mosul remember him with sadness but also with a great hope and consolation, for they know that he is in Heaven, interceding for them and protecting them. In these days, we are all praying for him in preparation of next Saturday’s Mass, which will also be an occasion to pray for peace in Mosul and in the whole Iraq.” During the Mass celebrated for Mgr Raho, the archbishop’s body will be transferred to the right wing of the Church of Saint Paul, where the youth choir usually is, as he had explicitly asked in his last will. The website Baghdadhope reported that “some Christians families are coming back to Mosul, after they have left the city in a hurry last October to flee from the violence directed against the community which eventually killed 14 people.”