Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad says he spoke to kidnapped priest 7 days ago
AP Worldstream; Sep 02, 2006
The Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad said Saturday he had spoken on the
phone with a priest who was kidnapped earlier this month in the Iraqi
capital, who told him a week ago that he was well but still in the
hands of his captors.
Patriarch Emmanuel Delly told the Italian missionary news agency
MISNA, however, that the kidnappers had assured him at the end of his
conversation last Saturday that they would release the priest
immediately, but he had heard nothing since.
"We’ve been waiting for him for seven days, but still nothing," Delly
said. "It’s been exactly a week since I had any news. Let’s hope they
will let him go as soon as possible, and let’s hope they won’t kill
him."
The Rev. Hanna Saad Sirop, who is director of the Theology Department
at Babel College, was abducted Aug. 15 as he left Mass celebrating the
Assumption holiday.
Delly said Sirop told him, "I am Father Sirop, I am in good health and
I am in the hands of the men who kidnapped me," according to MISNA.
Bishops from all of Baghdad’s Christian churches have sent a letter to
the Iraqi government asking them to help secure the release of the
34-year-old priest, and Pope Benedict XVI appealed for his release.
Christians make up just 3 percent of Iraq’s 26 million people. The
major Christian groups include Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with
small numbers of Roman Catholics.