A new video online shows the beheading of American journalist James Foley by ISIS.

Questions remain over how he fell into the hands of ISIS, as many thought he was being held captive by the Syrian regime:

What is unclear is if previous investigations into Foley’s whereabouts were inaccurate, if ISIS militants somehow captured Foley from some of the regime’s most elite security, or if the Assad regime provided Foley to ISIS.

His mother, Diane Foley, has released a powerful statement on her son’s killing, which included the following:

We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.

President Obama has also responded, contrasting Foley’s work with the despicable actions of those whose brutality he was covering:

Jim Foley’s life stands in stark contrast to his killers. Let’s be clear about ISIL (ISIS). They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Muslims, both Sunni and Shia, by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can, for no other reason than they practice a different religion.

They declared their ambition to commit genocide against an ancient people. So ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just god would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings. Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.

People like this ultimately fail. They fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy. The world is shaped by people like Jim Foley and the overwhelming majority of humanity who are appalled by those who killed him…

The people of Syria, whose story Jim Foley told, do not deserve to live under the shadow of a tyrant or terrorists. They have our support in their pursuit of a future rooted in dignity.

At NCR, MSW has an excellent column on Foley and the vocation of journalists that is worth reading in full. He writes:

I could not bring myself to watch the video of the beheading of James Foley. In 2002, I forced myself to watch the video of the beheading of Danny Pearl, in part because I knew him slightly. One such viewing is enough. But, I watched that horrible video of Pearl’s beheading for a different reason too. He and Foley and Sotloff and others lived their lives combating the human desire to look away. As Christians, we are never invited to be unrealistic. The Bible is nothing if not realistic about human iniquity, the brokenness of our world, the tendency to violence, all right there in the first few chapters of Genesis. These brave journalists who cover war zones perform an essential task if the rest of us are to live moral, responsible and decent lives, by forcing us to face the cruelties in the world. I do not have an ounce of their bravery. I am proud beyond measure of their work. We should all be grateful for their sacrifice – and horrified to action by it. Otherwise, they will have died in vain. Journalists can prick the conscience of the world. Shame on us if we look away.

Foley is a graduate of Marquette University. After he and a colleague were captured in Libya in 2011, he wrote a letter to Marquette Magazine. He wrote:

I had still not fully admitted to myself that my mom knew what had happened. But I kept telling Clare my mom had a strong faith.

I prayed she’d know I was OK. I prayed I could communicate through some cosmic reach of the universe to her.

I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. 
I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.

Clare and I prayed together out loud. It felt energizing to speak our weaknesses and hopes together, as if in a conversation with God, rather than silently and alone…

If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom, an inner freedom first and later the miracle of being released during a war in which the regime had no real incentive to free us. It didn’t make sense, but faith did.

When little else makes sense in our troubled world, our faith still does. In the wake of this tragedy, let us pray together that those called to this vocation continue to have the courage to expose the suffering and injustice in our world, as Foley did; that they may inspire us to fight for justice in this world; and for their protection as they engage in this dangerous yet essential work.