Catholic archbishop kidnapped in northern Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq, Jan 17 (AFP) - Armed men kidnapped a Catholic archbishop in Iraq`s main northern city of Mosul Monday, clerics said, prompting denunciations from the Vatican of what it called a "terrorist act".
Archbishop Basil George Casmusa, 66, leader of the city`s Syrian Catholic community, was seized by gunmen at around 5 pm (1400 GMT) as he was about to enter his car, Father Faraj told AFP.
The kidnappers then tossed him into the trunk of their vehicle before speeding away, said the priest, who follows the rival Chaldean rite.
The Chaldean patriarch in Baghdad, Emmanuel Delly, said Casmusa "was abducted outside his home as he was returning from a pastoral visit in the diocese of Mosul".
"He was abducted and taken off in a car. We don`t know who took him, nor the reason why," Delly told the missionary news agency Misna by telephone.
"We gave the news to the Vatican and now we are doing everything possible to trace him and we hope we can save him."
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls said the Holy See "condemns in the firmest manner this terrorist act and demands that Monsignor Casmusa be rapidly returned safe and well to his ministry".
The prelate heads the 35,000-strong Syrian Catholic church in Mosul. All of Iraq`s Christian denominations -- Assyrian, Syrian, Armenian and Greek -- have wings which recognize the supremacy of the Holy See.
Pope John Paul II, who named Casmusa archbishop in 1999, late last year condemned attacks on Catholic churches in Mosul, including an attack on the home of the leader of the Chaldean community -- the Catholic breakaway from the Assyrian Church.

01/17/2005 19:34 GMT - AFP