Vatican City, Sep 23, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The offical Vatican newspaper “L ‘Osservatore Romano,” is calling on Italians not to lose hope in response to terrorist statements that two 29-year old Italian volunteers have been killed in Iraq.
The front-page headline yesterday read, “Anguish and hope and yet we will not give up,” alluding to Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who were kidnapped September 7 in Bagdad.
The newspaper called on readers to continue hoping for the release of the young people, who traveled to Iraq as part of a humanitarian outreach to children.
“We must hope that these messages are not authentic, that they are only a dream, the worst you can have, and that the dark shadows that are suffocating us might dissappar soon,” the article stated.