Pope prays for murdered Italian child; peace in Iraq

In words following Sunday's Angelus prayer, the Pope recalled the 18 month-old Italian child Tommaso Onofri who was kidnapped from his parents' home on 2 March and whose body was discovered on Saturday, 1 April. His kidnappers have confessed to killing the child a few hours after having seized him. On March 7, during the spiritual exercises of the Roman Curia, Benedict XVI had launched an appeal for the child's release. "We have all been touched," he said in today's remarks, "by the case of little Tommaso, so savagely murdered; let us pray for him and for all victims of violence." The Holy Father then went on to refer to a request made by His Beatitude Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, and by other Iraqi bishops "for the faithful, believers, and men and women of good will to come together in prayer and fasting on April 3 and 4 to implore from God the gift of peace and harmony in Iraq and throughout the world." "I invite everyone," the Pope concluded, "to follow the initiative of our brothers in that martyred land, entrusting this intention to the intercession of Mary Most Holy, Queen of Peace." Source: VIS