{"id":469,"date":"2008-03-04T08:45:38","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T08:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/still-missing.html"},"modified":"2008-03-04T08:45:38","modified_gmt":"2008-03-04T08:45:38","slug":"still-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/still-missing.html","title":{"rendered":"Still missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul is still in the hands of kidnappers, who have raised their demands:<\/a><\/p>\n

The men who have the fate of Msgr. Paulos Faraj Rahho, Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul in their hands since February 29th last, have raised the ransom and dictated \u201cpolitical conditions\u201d for his release, according to AsiaNews <\/em>sources in Iraq, close to mediators who are negotiating his safe return. Late yesterday afternoon another phone call was made.\u00a0 <\/span>The group which holds the bishop hostage, used Msgr. Rahoo\u2019s mobile phone to communicate, but has still given no proof of his wellbeing. \u201cIt almost seems as if his release- anonymous sources in Mosul tell \u2013 is of secondary importance in their demands and the conditions which they have imposed greatly complicate matters, leading us to think that they are not just simple criminals interested in money\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Concern is increasing for the 67 year-old hostage who suffers ill health, for which he needs daily treatment.
\nIn diocese throughout Iraq prayers are said around the clock for Msgr. Rahho\u2019s safe return, while local TV\u2019s continuously transmit appeals from Christian leaders and the Pope for his release. \u00a0<\/span>Ample space is also given to the condemnation of Shiite and Sunni leaders who have defined this kidnap as \u201cagainst every principal of Islam\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>Today the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al Maliki, specified that \u201cattacking Christians means attacking the Iraqi people\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>In a message sent to Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the premier says that he has given instructions to \u201cthe minister for the Interior and the security forces in the province of Niniveh to work without rest to guarantee, as soon as possible, the return of the Archbishop of Mosul\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>Card. Delly has just arrived in Baghdad from a recent visit to Amman.<\/span>
\nThe Archbishop was kidnapped last Friday after having celebrated the Way of the Cross in the Church of Holy Spirit Parish, on the eastern outskirts of the city. \u00a0<\/span>In the abduction three men, with the archbishop, were killed. A Sunni stronghold in the north of the country, Mosul is more or less under the full control of terrorists and religious militias. \u00a0<\/span>Just a few weeks ago, US forces in Iraq along with Baghdad decided to launch a massive military operation to \u201cclean-up\u201d the area. \u00a0<\/span>Ordinary citizens, from across the religious divide, are suffering the consequences of this difficult situation. \u00a0<\/span>But Christians are once again being faced with stark choices, leave their homes or; convert to Islam; pay the jizya \u2013 the tax imposed by the Koran on non Muslim subjects- or death.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul is still in the hands of kidnappers, who have raised their demands: The men who have the fate of Msgr. Paulos Faraj Rahho, Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul in their hands since February 29th last, have raised the ransom and dictated \u201cpolitical conditions\u201d for his release, according to AsiaNews sources in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nStill missing - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/still-missing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Still missing - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul is still in the hands of kidnappers, who have raised their demands: The men who have the fate of Msgr. Paulos Faraj Rahho, Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul in their hands since February 29th last, have raised the ransom and dictated \u201cpolitical conditions\u201d for his release, according to AsiaNews sources in…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/still-missing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-04T08:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Still missing - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/03\/still-missing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Still missing - Via Media","og_description":"The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul is still in the hands of kidnappers, who have raised their demands: The men who have the fate of Msgr. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}