Vatican condemns kidnapping of Syrian Catholic archbishop in Iraq

Published: 2005-01-17

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic archbishop was kidnapped in Mosul, Iraq, the latest act of violence against the Christian minority in the country, the Vatican said. In a statement Jan. 17, the Vatican condemned the kidnapping as a "terrorist act" and urged that the archbishop be released immediately. The Vatican identified the prelate as 66-year-old Syrian-rite Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, who ministers to approximately 30,000 Syrian-rite Catholics in the Mosul Archdiocese. The Vatican gave no details of the kidnapping, but said it had received news of the abduction. "The Holy See deplores in the firmest manner such a terrorist act and asks that this worthy pastor be quickly restored unharmed to his ministry," the Vatican statement said. Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, Iraq, said Archbishop Casmoussa was abducted while on a pastoral visit. "He was kidnapped after he came out of a house where he was making a pastoral visit, in his Archdiocese of Mosul. He was seized and put into a car. We don't know who kidnapped him or the reason for this abduction," Patriarch Delly told the Italian news agency, ANSA.

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