An Iraqi priest who trained at the Irish College in Rome has been shot dead in his native city of Mosul.
Fr Ragheed Ganni, aged 35, was killed yesterday morning by unidentified gunmen as he returned from celebrating mass.
He and three deacons, one a cousin of the dead priest, were shot dead when the gunmen stopped their car,
Fr Ganni, who was a frequent visitor to Ireland where he worked at Lough Derg shrine in Donegal, was also an engineer and a member of the Chaldean Rite, Christianity's most ancient branch.
The Rector of the Irish College, Mgr Liam Bergin, said Fr Ganni always knew he was working in a dangerous place but had insisted that he belonged in Iraq where he often recalled that God had called Abraham.
He is survived by his parents in Mosul and at least one sibling, a sister who fled to Australia because of the war in Iraq.
This morning in Rome, President Mary McAleese paid tribute to Father Ganni whom she had met at Lough Derg.
Archbishop Sean Brady, who celebrated mass to inaugurate a chapel at the Irish Embassy to the Holy See, said the Irish College community was deeply shocked by the news of the deaths.
He said Fr Ganni had told him that his duties as a priest were to the Iraqi people in their hour of need.
