The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped Monday in what the Vatican called an "act of terrorism."
Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq, where the local church has been the target of a bombing campaign which has rattled the tiny Christian minority.
"We have received news of the kidnapping of the … Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters. He gave no details of the abduction.
"The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry," he said.
Christians make up some 3 percent of Iraq's population of about 25 million and have traditionally kept a relatively low profile, mindful of their precarious position in an overwhelmingly Muslim society.
A spate of bombs have hit churches and hospitals in the past few months, leaving numerous dead and injured.
Iraq's 650,000 Christians are mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics. Many have left Iraq and the Vatican fears more will go.
Last month the Vatican's foreign minister warned that anti-Christian feeling was spreading in Iraq and other Muslim countries because the war on terrorism was seen as linked to Western political strategy.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.
Washington justified invading Iraq by saying Saddam Hussein had developed weapons of mass destruction and claiming there were links between Baghdad and al Qaeda. No such weapons have been found nor hard evidence of pre-war al Qaeda links.
Pope John Paul strongly opposed the invasion.
Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic church, an ancient rite present mostly in the Middle East.
There are two Syrian Catholic dioceses in Iraq — one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul.
According to the Vatican yearbook, Casmoussa was born in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh.