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Papal Solidarity Offered for Iraqi Catholics After New Attacks

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  • Papal Solidarity Offered for Iraqi Catholics After New Attacks

    Zenit News Agency, Italy
    Dec 9 2004

    Papal Solidarity Offered for Iraqi Catholics After New Attacks

    Church and Bishop's Palace in Mosul Are Destroyed

    VATICAN CITY, DEC. 8, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II expressed his
    closeness to Iraqi Catholics shaken by two new terrorist attacks which
    destroyed an Armenian-Catholic church and the Chaldean bishop's palace
    in Mosul.

    "I express my spiritual closeness to the faithful, distressed by the
    attack, and I implore the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin
    Mary, that the Iraqi people may at last know times of reconciliation
    and peace," the Pope said today after praying the Angelus on the
    solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

    On Tuesday, attackers entered the Armenian Catholic church in the
    Wihda neighborhood in the eastern part of the city, according to
    AsiaNews. They forced out a security guard and two other people who
    were there and then set off two bombs, according to eyewitnesses.

    Around 4:30 p.m., a group of four or five armed men stormed the
    Chaldean bishop's palace on the right bank of the Tigris River.

    Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, 62, was away on pastoral duties. The
    only person in the building was Father Raghid Aziz Kara. He told
    AsiaNews that after the attackers ordered him to leave the premises,
    they proceeded to lay and then detonate explosive devices. He heard
    three explosions and saw the building engulfed in flames.

    The nearby Church of the Purification, which Muslims also venerate
    because of its famous statue of Our Lady, was untouched. Police were
    investigating.

    Archbishop Fernando Filoni, apostolic nuncio in Baghdad, told AsiaNews
    that the attacks against the bishop's resident and the Armenian
    Catholic church are "grave and cowardly acts against defenseless
    Christian symbols and institutions."

    The nuncio said that the Armenian church "was supposed to be
    inaugurated on Christmas Day." The attack against it shows "how little
    respect terrorists have for people and holy places," he said.

    He said that the bishop's palace in Mosul had been receiving threats
    for some time. "Today they became a reality," he noted.

    In reference to U.S. action in Fallujah, Archbishop Filoni said that
    terrorists promised "they would destroy a church for every mosque that
    was attacked. But all these acts stem from an exasperated violence
    that especially strikes those who are defenseless."
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