WHAT HAS BECOME OF FATHER PAOLO DALL’OGLIO, WHO WAS KIDNAPPED FOUR YEARS AGO IN SYRIA?
On July 29, 2013, Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio was kidnapped by Islamic State militants in the province of Raqqa. Two days earlier, Father Dall’Oglio had traveled to this Islamic State stronghold to negotiate the release of journalists being held hostage.
The priest, who is of Italian origin and has lived in Syria since the early 1980s, is the founder of the Al Khalil community located at the Mar Moussa monastery. For several years, rumors of his death or captivity have been circulating, but no reliable information has been confirmed.
As the coalition gains ground against the Islamic State in Raqqa, Œuvre d’Orient is appealing to Syrian and international authorities to help locate Father Paolo, as well as the two Orthodox bishops, Bishop Boulos Yazigi and Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, who were kidnapped that same year in Aleppo.
Bishop Pascal Gollnisch, Executive Director of the Œuvre d’Orient
Paris, July 29, 2017
