Pope condemns murder of Italian journalist, pleads for peace in Iraq

Published: 2004-08-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II strongly condemned the murder of an Italian freelance journalist in late August and pleaded with everyone involved in the ongoing Iraqi conflict to find peaceful means for resolving differences. Enzo Baldoni, 56, was in Iraq reporting for the Italian weekly Il Diario. In addition to his freelance reporting, he worked in the Italian advertising business and was the Italian translator of the U.S. comic strip "Doonesbury." He was kidnapped Aug. 20 while on his way to the besieged city of Najaf. Italian press reports said he was accompanying an Italian Red Cross convoy. The Arab television news station Al-Jazeera said Aug. 27 it had received a videotape showing Baldoni's kidnappers killing him. The Italian Foreign Ministry later confirmed his death. Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said Aug. 27 that officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State had offered their deepest condolences to Baldoni's family after hearing of his "barbaric assassination."

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