ROME (CNS): A Chaldean Catholic priest was released by kidnappers in Baghdad, Iraq, after being held in captivity for nearly a month.
Iraqi-born Fr Saad Sirop Hanna was liberated by his abductors on September 11.
The 34-year-old priest had been kidnapped by masked men on August 15 in Baghdad just after celebrating Mass for the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Fr Hanna works in Dora, one of Baghdad’s most dangerous neighbourhoods.
Appeals for his release were led by Pope Benedict XVI, who in an August 19 telegram to Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, made a “heartfelt appeal to the abductors to release the young priest”.
Fr Hanna said the prayers for his release had united a divided Iraq, and that the prayers had been a miracle for him.
