Video on the life of Fr Ragheed Ganni
Posted on 19. Jun, 2017 in Carousel
A tenth anniversary Mass for the late Fr Ragheed Ganni was celebrated at the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, on Sunday, 11th June 2017 at 10.00. The celebrant was Mons. Ciarán O’Carroll, Rector, and the homily was preached by Fr Rebwar Audish Basa, a friend of Fr Ragheed and author of a new book on Fr Ragheed’s life.
Ragheed Ganni came to the Pontifical Irish College in Rome in 1996 as a seminarian and was ordained priest in 2001. He stayed on in this college as a postgraduate priest until 2003 when he returned to Iraq. In Iraq, he exercised his priestly ministry with great courage. He was well aware of the risks to his safety, but he was committed to shepherd the flock of Christ entrusted to him. On Trinity Sunday, 3rd June 2007, the day the Irish were celebrating the canonisation of St Charles of Mount Argus, Fr Ragheed celebrated Sunday Mass in the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul where he was the Parish Priest. After Mass, Fr Ragheed and three subdeacons got into their car, but gunmen surrounded the car, and asked Fr Ragheed why he hadn’t closed the Church. He replied, ‘How can I close the house of God?’ The gunmen demanded that the four of them convert to Islam, and when they refused, they were shot down and killed.