Since 2003, the city of Mosul had experienced an escalation of violence, crime and kidnapping with local Christian communities, particularly hard hit.
Newsroom (16/03/20022 9:05 PM Gaudium Press) The canonization process of Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho is proceeding “smoothly, and, God willing”, the martyr Bishop will soon be declared blessed, “together with Father Raghiid Ganni, and his companions and Sister Cecilia of the Sacred Heart.”
With these words, Iraqi Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, tries to reassure all those who – in Iraq and the rest of the world – are waiting to see some martyrs raised to the honour of the altars, whose stories marked the recent journey of the indigenous Christian communities of Mesopotamia.
The patriarchal “reassurances” were expressed on Monday, March 14, during his homily on the 14th anniversary of Archbishop Rahho’s death in the Patriarchate’s chapel in Baghdad.
Archbishop Paulos Rahho of Mosul was kidnapped on February 29, 2008, by a party of armed men who stopped the car he was driving in, instantly killing the driver and two of his companions. After days of intense negotiations for his release, his lifeless body was found on March 12, 2008 near an abandoned cemetery in the Karama district.
Since 2003, the city of Mosul had experienced an escalation of violence, crime and kidnapping in the aftermath of the military operation that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, with local Christian communities, particularly hard hit.
In September 2016, The Synod of Chaldean Bishops opened a process for the canonization of Archbishop Rahho, Sister Cecilia Moshi Hanna, killed in Baghdad in 2002, Father Raghiid Ganni and the three deacons who died with him on June 3, 2007, in a terrorist attack on the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul.
On August 27, 2019, Bishop Francis Kalabat, at the head of the Chaldean eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle in Detroit (USA), signed the conclusion of the diocesan phase of the canonization processes, including files and documents collected during the diocesan phase of the processes.
At the end of October 2019, Baghdad also completed the diocesan phase of beatification and recognition of martyrdom for 48 servants of God killed in an attack on the Syrian Catholic Church in the Iraqi capital on October 31, 2010.
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh
