At midday today, the bells of all Catholic churches throughout Jordan will ring in a sign of mourning for the gruesome killing of the 26 year old pilot who was burned alive by IS militants.

Agenzia Fides is reporting on the outrage that is spreading throughout the country and all religious denominations of Jordan after IS released a video of the killing of Muath al-Kaseasbeh, the Jordanian pilot who was captured by the Islamic extremist group after his F-16 crashed while he was flying a mission as part of the U.S.-led air campaign against IS.

Kaseasbeh was one of eight children who had dreamed of flying since he was a little boy. A devout Muslim and a newlywed, wanted to fight IS and how the group was distorting the true spirit of Islam.

At one point, it seemed as though the pilot would be released in exchange for a suicide bomber, Sajida al-Rishawi, who was sentenced to death for her role in a bombing attack in Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people. Negotiations stalled when the Jordanians agreed to release her if IS could prove that Kaseashbeh was still alive. Their caution turned out to be warranted as it is now clear that the pilot had been killed in early January and was already dead at the time of the talks.

All of Jordan is now mourning his death, including his young wife of six months who was said to have learned the news yesterday and ran out into the street, crying hysterically, “Please God, let it not be true!”

Neighbors tried to keep the grisly details from the family by turning off their television set but it didn’t work. When his mother learned what had happened to her son, she fell to the floor screaming, ripping off her head scarf and tearing at her hair.

The horrible murder has not only sent the whole country into mourning but has united the Jordanian people.

“Today at 6 pm all Jordanian parishes will celebrate Masses and recite prayers for the soldier,” said Archbishop Laroun Lahham, Patriarchal Vicar for Jordan. “Then an official delegation of the Catholic Church will travel to present their condolences to the family and the tribe to which Muath belonged.”

The government of Jordan retaliated for the murder of their pilot by executing Sajida al-Rishawi and another jihadist named Ziad al-Karbouli just before dawn this morning.

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