Monday, June 12, 2017

Remembering Fr. Ragheed and Companions

 The only true resistance is resistance to evil. The Catholic News Agency:
When Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni was confronted by armed men after celebrating the Eucharist at his Chaldean Catholic parish in Mosul, they asked him why he was still there and why he hadn't closed the church as they had demanded.

"How can I close the house of God?" he responded, right before they shot and killed him, alongside three friends and subdeacons at the parish: Waheed, Ghasan, and Basman. An Iraqi priest born in 1972 in a town in the Plain of Ninevah, Fr. Ganni moved to Rome in 1996 to study at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas on a scholarship from the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

In 2003 he decided to return to Iraq, despite the war following the American invasion, and the persecution of Christians that was taking place. He served at a parish in Mosul until the day of his death, June 3, 2007. Ten years after his death, Fr. Ganni's friend and fellow priest, Fr. Rebwar Basa, has written a book about his life and death, and about the ongoing situation of Christians in Iraq. He spoke to CNA at a presentation for A Catholic Priest in the Islamic State, published by Aid to the Church in Need. The martyrdom and testimony of Fr. Ganni, he said, “is very important for the whole Church, but especially in Iraq.”

“He is an example for all of us to resist and to testify to the Gospel in the midst of the conflict and violence that we have in Iraq. Because we need this kind of witness to reconstruct Iraq, to be able to live together in peace and unity.” (Read more.)
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1 comment:

julygirl said...

The 'mainstream media' never report these atrocities imposed upon Christians in the Middle East Islamic countries. All they rave about is President Trump and his 'travel ban' as they refer to it.