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Chaldean Catholic clerics gunned down in Mosul [ cwnews.com] Chaldean Catholic priest and three deacons were gunned down in Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday, the AsiaNews service reports.
Father Ragheed Ganni and three deacons from his parish-- Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, Gassan Isam Bidawed-- were killed after celebrating the Eucharistic liturgy on Sunday.
As they left the church, the clerics� car was stopped by a group of armed gunmen, who shot all 4 men and then rigged their car with explosives so that no one would dare remove their bodies. The car with the four murdered me remained in the city street, bearing witness to the killings, for several hours until a police bomb-squad defused the devices.
The parish where they served, the Church of the Holy Spirit, had been bombed and vandalized in the past, and Father Ganni had been threatened by Islamic militants, AsiaNews reports. The three deacons had been accompanying the priest constantly, hoping to protect him.
Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly referred to the attack as �a crime against God.�
Christians in Iraq have been the objects of a nationwide campaign of intimidation, forcing tens of thousands of members of the Christian minority to leave Iraq for safety in neighboring lands. What brave deacons!!!
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And this is why I opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning....by driving the Christian element out of Iraq, how can we honestly expect to stabilize Iraq. Poland was converted by Catholics-praying the rosary and sacrificing in conjunction with Thatcher and Reagan and not vice versa. With the Catholics, and Orthodox fleeing Iraq who is going to offer the sacrifices and prayers to convert and save the country/region?
Holly
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Za myr z'wysot ... Member
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by driving the Christian element out of Iraq, how can we honestly expect to stabilize Iraq? Holly, Unfortunately, our agenda in Iraq appears to be dictated more by the preferences of the Saudi Arabian government than our own national security needs. As I see it, the great irony of Islam is that it could not continue to exist if the large body of Muslims who believe in a peaceful and loving God were to come to the realization that THEY are the ones who are systematically ignoring parts of the Qur'an, while the evil, vile and wicked minority are actually reading those parts and following them. Islam began in the Arabian peninsula, and quickly spread to North Africa and the Middle East, being embraced there by millions of ex-Christians in what had to be the most horrible mass apostasy in the history of the Church. Very little is ever said about this, and I would like to learn more. Back to our original topic, though, may God grant rest to Fr. Ragheed Ganni and his three deacons, and may their memory be eternal! Peace, Deacon Richard
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Fr Ragheed Ganni, 34, was hit by gunfire in front of the Church of the Holy Spirit. Three deacons, who served as his aides, were also killed. http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9442&size=ALord have mercy! May your servant preist Fr. Ganni and the deacons rest where the just repose. Grant grace to the community of faithful joined together there to find peace, trust, and their security in you Jesus. This soul can't imagine how they are right now. The only words I hear in my head are LORD HAVE MERCY!
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Why isn't the secular media covering this? I have had on cable news constantly on my TV the last 2-3 days, and nothing- not on Fox, CNN or any of the others. It is appalling.
We must do all we can do publicize the persecution of Christians in Iraq, and the plight of Christians in the near East.
And yes, invoking our holy Queen through the Rosary, Akathist or other prayers is much to be preferred over going to war.
Let's us offer our prayers, rosaries, paraclesis prayers for our brave fellow citizens in Iraq, and for the war- weary Iraqi people, most especially our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for the Apostolic faith.
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Why isn't the secular media covering this? I have had on cable news constantly on my TV the last 2-3 days, and nothing- not on Fox, CNN or any of the others. It is appalling.
We must do all we can do publicize the persecution of Christians in Iraq, and the plight of Christians in the near East.
And yes, invoking our holy Queen through the Rosary, Akathist or other prayers is much to be preferred over going to war.
Let's us offer our prayers, rosaries, paraclesis prayers for our brave fellow citizens in Iraq, and for the war- weary Iraqi people, most especially our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for the Apostolic faith. The "big" news for the secular media in the U.S. is the success or failure of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The protagonists are Arab Muslims and the Christians are just relegated to the background. (The Kurds to the North are just happy watching their Arab countrymen butcher each other.) Now, the outcome has been complicated by the progressive internicine war between Sunnis and Shiites, with the U.S. Armed Forces, even with the ongoing multiple troop surges, failing to quell the violence and losing in the process the invaluable lives of so many young soldiers. With this on-going scenario, does any one here think the U.S. would concern itself with the minority Christians?
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Chaldean Church Mourns Fr. Ragheed Ganni and His Martyrs
Posted GMT 6-4-2007 14:22:4
Mosul (AsiaNews) -- With "a heart full of bitterness and mourning", the Chaldean Church is today lamenting its martyrs. This is how, in a joint statement the Chaldean Patriarch and his bishops remember Fr Ragheed Ganni (in the photo) and his three sub-deacons - Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, Gassan Isam Bidawed -- murdered in cold blood yesterday, as they left the Parist Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul after Sunday Mass. This afternoon at 15.00 (local time) their funerals will be held in Karamles, Fr. Ragheed's home town; celebrated by Msgr. Faraj Rahho, the bishop of Mosul.
Emmanuel III Delly's condemnation on behalf of the nation's bishops came just hours after the assassination. "It is a most heinous crime that any person of proper conscience would reject. The authors carried out a most horrible act against God, against humanity, against their own brothers who were peace loving citizens, as well as men of religion who always offered their prayers to God the Almighty for security and stability in Iraq", the text reads.
Msgr. Rabban al Qas, bishop of Amadiyah and Erbil, reflected on the figure of Fr. Ragheed with AsiaNews: "He had such great courage, united with a loving calm. He was a spiritual man, loved by his people, Catholic and Muslim".
Meanwhile new information surrounding the nature of the attack has come to light. After celebrating Sunday mass, Fr Ragheed and his three aides were leaving the Parish by car, accompanied by the wife of one of the sub-deacons,, Gassan Isam Bidawed. In recent days the three insisted on accompanying Fr Ragheed to protect him. "They were young men alive with faith, who accompanied their parish priests every more, risking their lives for their belief in Christ", their friends tell. Suddenly, at the corner of the road, their car is blocked by unknown armed men militants who order the woman to distance herself from the others and then, in cold blood, shoot the remaining passengers, repeatedly. The aggressor's then booby trapped the car with explosives; with the aim of further carnage should anyone near the car to recover the bodies. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the bodies remained, abandoned on the city street, because no one dared to approach. It was only towards ten pm (Local time) that security forces finally defused the explosives allowing corpses to be recovered. They now lie in repose in the Church of the Holy Spirit.
The Chaldean bishops who are currently gathered for their patriarchal Synod "ask the Lord to grant mercy to the souls of these martyrs, and extend their deepest sympathies to the families of the deceased, to the bishop of the city Msgr. Faraj Rahho, to the brother priests of the victims and the Chaldean faithful throughout the world, that they may be given the necessary strength to face such an arduous situation". The bishops conclude by recalling the persecution of Iraqi Christians, their forced emigration, their being pushed to renounce their faith asking "Iraqi leaders and international organisations to intervene to put a concrete end to these criminal acts".
Yesterday card. Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state revealed that the war in Iraq will be on the agenda for talks with US President George Bush in his upcoming visit to Rome June 8th.
Fr. Ragheed is the first Catholic priest to have been killed in Iraq since 2003. Before him, last year it was the turn of a Syro- Orthodox priest Fr. Paul Iskandar.
A dear friend of AsiaNews, Fr Ragheed Ganni was born in Mosul in 1972. A graduate in engineering form the local university, he studied theology from 1996 to 2003 at the Pontifical Irish College and the Pontifical University of Thomas Aquinas the "Angelicum", where he received a licence in Ecumenical Theology.
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[ Linked Image] Holy Martyrs, Fr. Ragheed Ganni and Fr. Paulos Iskander, pray to the Lord for the Assyro-Chaldean people and your Holy Church.
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O Holy Martyrs of Iraq, pray unto God for us.
Alexis
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3 Sub-Deacons / Body Guards died with him.
Perhaps its time to revive the original purpose of the Holy Knights of St. John!!!
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Your Church throughout the world, O Lord, is clothed with the blood of Your Martyrs as with fine linens and purple robes; and so the Church cries out to You, O Christ our God: "Send down Your goodness upon Your people; grant peace to Your Church and great mercy to our souls."
Troparion of the Saints
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This is all so, so sad....Lord have mercy!
Christ, save your Church and your people!
Alice
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O Holy Martyrs of Iraq, pray unto God for us.Alexis Does anyone know how many Christians have been martyred in Iraq? Someone must be keeping tabs.
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Memory eternal to the servants of God, the Priest Ragheed Ganni and the Deacons Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed. May God comfort their families and our Chaldean brethren with the thought that, in the loss of these men from their earthly environs, the ranks of the Saints have been increased.
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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Does anyone know how many Christians have been martyred in Iraq? Someone must be keeping tabs. The martyrs of the past five years from among the clergy and religious of four faiths - how many laity, can't even be guessed, I suspect. Additionally, there have been several kidnappings of Chaldean, Assyrian, Syriac Orthodox. and Syriac Catholic clerics, as well as bombing of churches of all those faiths and Armenian churches. Father Ragheed Ganni, Deacon Basman Yousef Daud, Deacon Wahid Hanna Isho, and Deacon Gassan Isam Bidawed - Chaldean Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit, Mosul 6/3/2007 Sister Fawzeiyah Naoum and Sister Margaret Naoum - elderly siblings and Chaldean Catholic religious, Kirkuk 3/26/2007 Elder Munthir - National Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Mosul 11/30/2006 Sheikh Raad Mutar Saleh, - Leader, Sabean/Mandaean faith community, Suweira 10/11/2006 Father Boulos Iskander Behnam - Vicar, St. Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church, Mosul 10/11/2006 Sister Cecilia Moshi Hanna - Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaldean Catholic Monastery, Baghdad Iraq 8/15/2002 Memory eternal. Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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