Pope pleads for release of two priests kidnapped in Mosul

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Pope Benedict XVI made a public appeal on Sunday for the release of two Catholic priests kidnapped a day earlier on their way home from a funeral in northern Iraq.

The priests were abducted about 4 p.m. Saturday after participating in a funeral in western Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, according to Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, Mosul's head of the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the branches of the Roman Catholic Church.

Gunmen ambushed the priests' car, dragged them out and took them to an unidentified location, Casmoussa said Sunday.

. . .

In the summer of 2004, insurgents launched a coordinated bombing campaign against Baghdad churches, sending some Christians fleeing in fear.

A second wave of anti-Christian attacks hit in September 2006 after Pope Benedict XVI made comments perceived to be anti-Muslim. Church bombings spiked and a priest, also in Mosul, was kidnapped and later found beheaded.

Many churches are now nearly empty, with their faithful either gone or too scared to attend.