 Rahho expressed disquiet at the moves to incorporate Sharia law more fundamentally into the Iraqi constitution , and continued throughout his life to lead worship in difficult situations . During his 2007 trip to Rome , with the patriarch of Babylon Emmanuel III Delly who was then appointed cardinal , Rahho confided that he had been threatened by gunmen in his native town . Following the start of the Iraq war , persecution of Christians in Iraq increased dramatically . Rahho commented on the precarious situation of Chaldean Christians in an interview with Asia News shortly before his kidnapping . 
