BAGHDAD — The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was buried Friday, two weeks after he was kidnapped in the troubled northern city of Mosul.
Hundreds gathered at the church in the village of Kramleis, just north of Mosul, to memorialize the highest-ranking Christian cleric to be targeted by armed groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq five years ago.
Rahho's body was found a day earlier in Mosul, where his religious community has faced attacks from Sunni Arab extremists and criminal gangs.
Gunmen grabbed Rahho Feb. 29 outside his church after he had finished celebrating a prayer service. His driver and two guards were shot dead in the abduction.
According to police and church officials, the archbishop, who suffered from heart disease and diabetes, died because his captors failed to provide him his regular medications. Initially, Nineveh province police chief Gen. Wathiq Hamdani said he believed Rahho had been shot when kidnapped and died of his injuries.
Rahho's death was perceived as a major blow to Christians in Mosul. The country's Christian minority, which stood at about 800,000 before the start of the war in 2003, has been targeted repeatedly in Iraq's recent bloodshed. Militants have viewed Christians as sympathetic to the West and easy to prey upon due to their small numbers.
At the funeral, religious leaders tried to calm the beleaguered community. "I ask the people of the church to be steadfast and patient," Iraq's Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, told mourners, his voice choking. "He became a martyr because of his great faith, and his love for his service."
Mourners threw flowers on Rahho's simple wooden coffin and women wailed as his body passed down the central aisle of the small church in the village, where other Christian victims of Mosul's strife have been buried.
Christians remembered Rahho, who was in his 60s, for having continued to give hope to their dwindling numbers. In June, the archbishop's confidant, Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, was shot dead along with three deacons outside the Church of the Holy Spirit, where Rahho was kidnapped last month. On one occasion, Rahho was accosted by gunmen, but he walked on, daring them to shoot him, said Nabil Kashat, an advisor to the Chaldean Charity Assn.
Kashat had lunch with Rahho as part of a small group a week before his abduction.
