The Syrian: Hilarion Capucci and the Pricelss Ransom

The year is 1983. Just outside Beirut, on Highway 51 to Tyre, three masked men bring a Mercedes sedan to a halt. The driver of the car is shot dead; its owner, 63-year-old, Joseph Khouri, is tied and blindfolded and taken hostage. Despite next-to-nonexistent systems of communication in war-torn Lebanon, within two hours, news of the murder and abduction reaches the Vatican. One of the pope's top men in the Middle East, the Archbishop of Tyre, Joseph Khouri, is being held for ransom. The mon...