BAGHDAD -- The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found in a shallow grave in northern Iraq on Thursday, two weeks after he was kidnapped by gunmen as he drove home after afternoon Mass in one of the most dramatic attacks against the country's small Christian community.

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Pope Benedict XVI deplored Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's death, calling it an "inhuman act of violence that offends the dignity of the human being and harms the peaceful coexistence of the dear Iraqi people."

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been targeted by Islamic extremists who label them "crusaders" loyal to U.S. troops. Militants have attacked churches, priests and businesses owned by Christians.

Rahho, 65, was seized Feb. 29 in Mosul, a city considered by the U.S. military the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq. Three of Rahho's companions were killed.

Officials at the archbishop's church received a phone call Wednesday from the captors who said Rahho had died and where to find his body, said Monsignor Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad.

It was not clear if Rahho was killed or if he died of an illness. The archbishop had high blood pressure and had a heart condition. A Mosul morgue official said Rahho's body had no bullet holes.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the archbishop's kidnapping or his death.

The Chaldean church is an Eastern denomination that maintains ties with Rome.

Ibrahim Ibrahim, the Chaldean Catholic bishop of Detroit, said that the slaying of the Chaldean prelate shocks the consciences of all Christians and follows several previous incidents in which Christian clerics have been slain in Iraq, under the American occupation.

"What we are more surprised about is that we did not hear anything for all those 15 days that he was missing, from the American administration," said Ibrahim, reflecting widely held opinion in the local Chaldean community, which has turned sharply against the Bush administration's conduct of the war. "We heard not one word decrying the act, not even an appeal."

Other local Chaldeans said they were in mourning and that they had feared the worst for Rahho for two weeks.

"Obviously, I'm outraged that a man of the cloth, a religious leader, would lose his life to terrorism," said Nabby Yono, vice president of community relations for the Arab Chaldean Council, in Lathrup Village. "Words cannot describe this action.
"This Christian minority, including the Chaldeans, is taking the brunt of these acts of terrorism," Yono said.

"The Iraqi government is inept and the U.S. occupation forces are to blame because they are the occupiers, and they are one who should enforce law and order."

The Chaldean population of Metro Detroit is the largest outside Iraq.