Pat Dollard

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Pictured: Daniel in the Lions Den…sometimes God says “no touch”… Inset: Priest Yousef Adel reads from the Bible during the ceremony for the Holy Cross Day at The Church of Saint Bahnam Sheik Matti, an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad.

Revelation Chapter 6:

{9}When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

{10} And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

{11} Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

BAGHDAD— An Assyrian Orthodox priest was killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Baghdad, police and an assistant said, the latest attack against Iraq’s Christian minority.

The 40-year-old priest, Youssef Adel, was shot by gunmen who drove up in a car and opened fire as he was opening the gate of his house in a Christian enclave near the St. Peter and Paul church where he presided, an assistant said.

Christians have frequently been caught up in the violence or been targeted in this predominantly Muslim country.

The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, one of Iraq’s most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics, was found on March 13, about two weeks after he was seized by gunmen in the volatile northwestern city of Mosul.

Pope Benedict XVI expressed his deep pain over Adel’s killing.

A telegram cited by Vatican Radio said the Roman Catholic pope was praying that “the Iraqi people find the way of peace to build a just and tolerant society.”

Benedict has frequently expressed concern about the plight of Christians caught in the sectarian crossfire in Iraq.

Adel’s assistant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the attack occurred about 11:30 a.m. and the gunmen fled the area in a car after the shooting.

He said the priest, who was married but had no children, directed a religiously mixed school for Muslims and Christians at the church. The funeral was scheduled for Sunday.

Adel was an engineer but became a priest about six years ago, the assistant said. He previously served in a church in the predominantly Sunni area of Dora in southern Baghdad but moved to the central district of Karradah after a series of attacks in the former insurgent stronghold.

The assistant said Adel was a compassionate man who preached about love and peace and was heavily involved in helping orphans and widows in his church.

(AP)