Enough with the Violence in Iraq!

In this undated photo Pope Benedict XVI meets with Chaldean Catholic archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, left, and Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans of Iraq. The body of Rahho, kidnapped in Iraq last month, was found just outside the northern city where he was abducted. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized in Mosul and three of his companions were killed Feb. 29 when gunmen attacked them after they had celebrated the Stations of the Cross . (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)


Referencing the murder of Bishop Rahho in Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI delivered this greeting after Palm Sunday Mass to the thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square in Rome:
"At the end of this solemn celebration in which we have meditated on Christ's Passion, I would like to recall the late Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Monsignor Paulos Faraj Rahho, who tragically died a few days ago. His beautiful witness of fidelity to Christ, to the Church and his people, whom he did not want to abandon despite numerous threats, moves me to cry out forcefully and with distress: Enough with the bloodshed, enough with the violence, enough with the hatred in Iraq! And at the same time I make an appeal to the Iraqi people, who for five years have endured the consequences of a war that has provoked upheaval in its civil and social life: Beloved Iraqi people, lift up your heads and let it be you yourselves who, in the first place, rebuild your national life! May reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and respect for the civil coexistence of tribes, ethnic groups and religious groups be the solid way to peace in the name of God!"

The Pope had already voiced his pain of Chaldean Bishop Rahho's death and a Chaldean bishop in the U.S. has laid the blame for Rahho's death at the doorstep of the administration of President George Bush.