More about Father Ragheed Ganni: Courageous Witness

"Having Taught a Martyr Is Something Else Entirely"

Professor Shares E-Mails From Father Ragheed

ROME, JUNE 13, 2007 (Zenit.org ).-

"The situation here is worse than hell," Father Ragheed Ganni wrote to a former professor the day before he and three deacons were shot after Sunday Mass in Mosul, Iraq.Father Robert Christian, a theology professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum, in Rome, spoke at the requiem Mass held in that school on Tuesday. There, Father Ganni had studied theology and ecumenism.

On June 3, Father Ganni and three deacons, Basman Yousef Daoud, Ghasan Bidawid and Wadid Hanna, were killed in front of the Church of the Holy Spirit. Father Christian began his homily, saying: "On Saturday, June 2, I received an e-mail from Mosul. In part it read: 'The situation here is worse than hell, and my church has been attacked a few more times since we last met. Last week, two guards in it were wounded after an attack. We shall meet in the near future and have a chat about all these events. God bless, Ragheed.'"

Father Christian continued: "The patriarch of the Chaldeans called them martyrs. And martyrs, who conform closely to the passion and death of Jesus Christ, have been revered since Christian antiquity as saints."A hellFather Christian called a hell that which "those left behind are experiencing: Ragheed's family and friends; the flock he pastured; his Chaldean Church, other Christians, and yes, Muslims, too, trapped in the senseless vortex of blind hatred and violence that is daily life in Iraq.""Ragheed could have fled," Father Christian continued. "As far as I know, he came to Italy three times after he returned to Mosul upon finishing his licentiate in ecumenism at the Angelicum. "But Ragheed had a strong sense of his priestly duty to be an icon of the Good Shepherd for his people."

Father Christian also read a message he received from Father Ganni last October. It read:

"Dear Father Christian, How are you? I'm really happy to get your message, and to know that there are people who still think of and pray for my country." The situation, as you can follow in the news, is dreadful. Christians are suffering twice, first because of the situation, second because of their religion.

"The Pope's speech lit a fire in the city. A Syrian Orthodox priest was beheaded; my parish church was attacked five times. I was threatened even before that priest was kidnapped, but I was very careful about moving around. I postponed my vacation twice because I couldn't leave the city under such conditions.

"I was planning to travel to Europe on Sept. 18, but I moved it to Oct. 4. Then I had to change the date to Nov. 1. "Ramadan was a disaster for us in Mosul. Hundreds of Christian families fled outside the city -- including my family and uncles. About 30 people left all their properties and fled, having been threatened."It is not easy but the grace of the Lord gives support and strength. We face death every day here."

These words show, Father Christian said, that Father Ganni "knew he was facing the threat of death for his faith. But he also knew that staying there was his duty, giving courageous witness to our faith in the resurrected Lord."

The professor continued: "We are used to teaching future leaders of the Church. When we hear about one of our former students becoming a bishop, we rejoice. But having taught a martyr is something else entirely. And sometimes we professors learn from our students."The emotions are strong: sadness, pain, anger and the feeling of helplessness.

"However, there is the awareness that we are before a person who was prepared to pay the supreme price; a person who wanted to live and die heroically; a person ready to shed his blood for the life of the faithful. This awareness humbles us."

Father Christian explained the source of Father Ganni's fortitude: "The strength of Father Ragheed was the Eucharist, and in his homilies he taught the faithful that the body and blood of Jesus, who was sacrificed and resurrected, strengthened the union among the members of the mystical body of Christ. "May the Eucharist give us the courage to live and die like Father Ragheed."Giving into the temptation of revenge does not honor Father Ragheed, but rather promoting peace, dialogue, and constructing or building a civilization of love."

On Sunday, another requiem Mass was celebrated by Father Joseph Chedid in the Church of St. Roukoz of the Antonine Maronite order in Lebanon.In his homily, Father Chedid, an Antonine priest and friend of Father Ragheed, spoke about the "souls of the martyrs whose blood was shed to witness to the word of God." He asked the faithful to pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the Iraqi people, and especially for Christians, to remove the "dark clouds hanging over them during the dreadful situation they are experiencing."

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for all the people affected by this war

and for us who have recourse to you.

Here or Westward God is One

Here's a reminder to pray always for peace in Iraq and reconciliation among religions.

A message from the President of Ireland in the wake of a priest's recent death in Iraq:

I was in Rome last weekend when the tragic news came through that Father Ragheed Ganni, someone I first met in Lough Derg some years ago, and a former student of the Irish College, had been killed with three of the deacons who worked with him -- one of those deacons his cousin.

Father Ragheed's father and mother, and all his family, must suffer great pain at this time. Their loss is all the more terrible for the suddenness and evil manner of his death. May Father Ragheed's dear parents be sustained by their deep faith. The manner of Father Ragheed's death will be mourned in particular by the people of Iraq -- and as his funeral mass in northern Iraq demonstrated -- by the people of the whole region. Father Ragheed returned to live and minister in the ancient city of Mosul, in the parish of the Holy Spirit, in full consciousness of the risks.

There had been a bomb attack on the parish church as recently as Pentecost Sunday. Let us recognize Father Ragheed's sacrifice for what it was. Equally, we should reflect in truth on the sequence of events that has brought so many communities in Iraq to the edge of survival.

As we follow the daily tragedies of Iraq, we should pray, as Benedict XVI said, that this "costly sacrifice will inspire ... a renewed resolve to reject the ways of hatred and violence."

In the middle of the forced exodus to Connaught in the 1650s, a Gaelic poet (Fear Dorcha O'Mealláin) wrote about the possibility of faith even under dire circumstances of persecution and social dislocation (An Duanaire).

He spoke too of God's oneness:

"People of my heart, stand steady,

Don't make play of your distress.

Moses got what he requested,

Religious freedom, even from Pharaoh.

"Identical Israel's God and ours,

One God there was and still remains.

Here or Westward God is one,

One God ever and shall be."

Father Ragheed Ganni's death challenges us to work for reconciliation between faiths and to create a world where each human life is revered. The process of our own island's reconciliation that began so promisingly in Belfast a few short weeks ago may hold out hope for Father Ganni's beloved, but troubled, homeland.

These are days of sorrow for a caring family, for a lacerated country, and for so many others. But Father Ragheed lived his life by a commandment to love. In our sorrow we remember, on this feast of Corpus Christi, his sacrifice, his willing sacrifice in service of his faith. I thank God today for the blessing that has been given us in Father Ragheed Ganni.

"Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm dílis" (May his faithful soul be on God's right side).