Letter of an Iraqi priest to his wounded country

Above is a video on the killing of two priests and 48 parishioners during Mass at Our Lady of Salvation Church, Baghdad, on 31 October. They were members of the Syrian Rite of the Catholic Church. Of the 15 Catholic dioceses in Iraq eleven belong to the Chaldean Rite, one to Latin or Roman Rite, one to the Armenian Rite and two to the Syrian Rite. The song in the video is in Arabic and, as far as I can make out, was written in honour of the people who were martyred. Freddie Hamika put the video together. I'm not sure if he wrote the song.

You can read a longer post, with some photos, at http://www.misyononline.com/, the online magazine I edit for the Columbans in the Philippines, here. It includes the letter of Fr Albert Hisham Naoum, a friend of the two priests who were murdered, Fr Wasim Sabieh and Fr Thaier Saad Abdel, along with the names of their parishioners who died.