Mosul, Mar. 3, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Iraqi police are scouring the city of Mosul and its surroundings, searching for the gunmen who abducted Chaldean Catholic Bishop Paulos Faraj Raho on February 29. As Church leaders pleaded for his release, an Iraqi bishop revealed that the kidnappers had issued a "staggering" ransom demand.
Bishop Shelmon Warduni, an auxiliary of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Baghdad, told the SIR news service that Church officials had sought unsuccessfully for a chance to speak with Bishop Rabo, whose physical condition is unknown. Church leaders declined to provide more details about their negotiations with the bishop's captors, saying that the situation is extremely delicate.
Pope Benedict XVI described the kidnapping as "a powerful blow to the whole Church in the country and especially the Chaldean Church… and to the entirely sorely tried Christian community" in Iraq. During his Sunday Angelus audience on March 2 the Pontiff made a public appeal for the immediate release of Bishop Raho-- noting that the Iraqi prelate was "in delicate health" even before his abduction.
Bishop Raho was seized by gunmen who attacked his car as he left the Holy Spirit cathedral in Mosul after leading the Stations of the Cross. Three companions were killed in the attack-- which, the Vatican observed, seemed to have been planned carefully in advance.