Tag: Iraq Christians

“People have been stripped of their dignity,” US Chaldean bishop says

Francis KalabatTestimony of Bishop Francis Kalabat from the St. Thomas the Apostle Chaldean Catholic Diocese

Senate Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Global Women’s Issues

December 9, 2014

Madam Chair, Ranking Member, members of the committee: My name is Francis Kalabat and I serve as Bishop of the Chaldean Diocese of St. Thomas in North America, which includes 12 churches in Michigan and Illinois representing more than 175,000 Chaldean Catholics in communion with Rome and His Holiness Pope Francis.

Thank you for allowing me to testify before you today. As I speak, the process of the eradication of Christians in Iraq and throughout the Middle East continues. Ten years ago, in Iraq alone, there were over 350 Churches; today there are fewer than forty. Many have been bombed or destroyed; others, especially in the historically Christian villages of northern Iraq, are being used as Islamic State facilities.

I am here today to give testimony to the suffering of our people in Iraq and throughout the diaspora in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, and to seek further assistance from this body, Congress as a whole and the executive branch. The United States has a unique role and obligation in this conflict. Not only because we are the standard bearer and protector of international human rights, but also because the plight of Christians in Iraq today is a direct result of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

That effort, the poorly planned and executed goal of regime change and the more recent withdrawal of U.S. troops, left in its wake a weakened and decentralized national government, sectarian warfare and the practice of government by tribes or in some cases government by gang. The lack of national unity and a tepid Iraqi military has left a dangerous void—a void filled, hopefully only temporarily, by Islamic State—a group that is the anathema to the West, to Judeo-Christian values and to civilized international norms. This has meant devastating consequences to the people of Iraq, especially Christians who are being systematically uprooted from their homes in the historical birthplace of Christianity.

A couple hundred thousand Christian Iraqis have fled their homes since the militant Islamic State group swept through much of the north in June. Islamic State has been turning churches into prisons in the Iraq city of Mosul, which used to be the site of a large Christian community before it was driven out by this terrorist group. As an example, Fides News Agency reported last Tuesday that a number of detainees were recently sent to the ancient Chaldean church of the Immaculate Conception in the eastern part of the city. Sources have shared that the historically important St. George Monastery in the north has also been turned into a place for female detention, raising fears that women might be abused. Our Churches have been destroyed and many of our ancient manuscripts dating back to the tenth century have been destroyed in an effort to wipe out our identity.

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Mosul has been emptied of Christians who, under the implementation of Sharia law, have been forced to convert to Islam, pay a tax, leave their homes or die for their faith. Many have been killed in the name of religion.

Allow me to quote from a letter from Sr. Maria Hanna, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in Iraq.

“After four months of exile there are no signs of hope that the situation here in Iraq will be resolved peacefully. Unable to think or make decisions, everything is vague and we feel as if we have been living a nightmare. Christianity in Iraq is bleeding; so many families have left, and many are leaving to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, preparing themselves for second immigration and an uncertain future. We know not how long these families will be able to tolerate the burden and survive financially.

“The conditions remain the same for those of us in Iraq. Many still are forced to stay in unfinished buildings on construction sites. In one place, a mall has been remodeled to accommodate families, with the hall divided merely with partitions. Although they are better than tents, they resemble dark, damp cages with no ventilation. Most difficult of all is the lack of privacy.

“There have been some attempts to provide containers and rent houses and flats, but this is not enough as the number of displaced people increases each day. Many come from cold mountainous places. Psychologically, people are tired, worried, confused, and irritated – who would blame them? They are jobless, their children do not attend school, and young people are still waiting to start their academic year at the university – some tried to register at Kurdish universities, but they were not accepted. All this is causing tremendous strain on the families, and the result is abuse and relationships that are unhealthy. The problems are totally overwhelming, and it seems as if our efforts are amounting to nothing.

“People have been stripped of their dignity….”

Members of this Committee, I submit to you that when people lose their dignity, they despair and despair is a dark, lonely place. But as our Savior Jesus Christ has taught us, “Where there is despair, he will bring hope.” But it is incumbent on us—the United States, western nations and all God- loving people everywhere, to be the tools and the manifestation of this hope. Therefore, I call on this sub-committee and the United States government to resolve the following:

  1. 1)  Our Diocese here has raised more than $1.5 million to aid the internally displaced Christians and other minorities now living in Kurdistan. Banking laws and regulations and other stipulations should not inhibit this money from reaching the people who need it.
  2. 2)  The Kurdish government should be provided resources by the U.S. specifically to aid people displaced by this current conflagration. The Kurdish Regional Government lacks resources to aid our growing refugee community and the arms to combat these terrorists.
  3. 3)  Pressure should be placed on the central government in Baghdad to take a more active stance on the growing problem of Iraqi refugees. The central government has done virtually nothing to support our community and is primarily concerned with the preservation of sectarian political power. Christians are being used as pawns because we have lived in what is known as disputed areas in Iraq.
  1. 4)  The U.S. and the international community must immediately intervene to provide direct

    humanitarian aid to the displaced Christians and other minorities in the regions of Erbil and

    Dohuk in northern Iraq.

  2. 5)  Christian and other minority villages that have been overrun by ragtag Islamic State militants

    must immediately be liberated with U.S. military assistance and refugees provided safe

    passage to return to their villages and homes.

  3. 6)  The Christian and other minority villages must be protected by a U.S.-led international force

    under the supervision of either the U.S. or United Nations, if other governments will participate. The air strikes alone are accomplishing very little and costing taxpayers a bundle.

  4. 7)  Syria must not follow the same path as Iraq. The United States’ involvement in Syria is just as vague as that in Iraq and is leading to the same brutality. This only leads us to ask: Who’s next in the Middle East?

Senators, I submit to you that the U.S. must finish what it started; Islamic State must be defeated quickly and permanently. They are a menace to the Iraqi and Syrian people and will be a permanent threat to the West if they are not dismantled. The situation that the ancient Christian people of Iraq find themselves in today is the direct result of 20 years of failed U.S. policy in Iraq. An additional 2.2 million Christians in Syria are facing the same fate. Our response and future actions as a government cannot be borne just from a sense of humanitarian responsibility but rather the moral obligation that accompanies the direct role that the U.S has played in the destabilization of Iraq and the region.

Thank you.

Anniversary of death of Pope John XXIII, the Mosul martyrs, and a Trappist

John 23 death.jpg

In daily life most of occasionally remember the passing of a loved with a visit to the cemetery, saying a prayer for the peaceful repose of the soul, perhaps having a Mass offered for the loved. These are normal Catholic practices in remembering the dead. But when you are a pope similar things happen, but just like with loved ones, there comes a point that we just don’t actively remember anymore. Do we actively remember the dead? In my family, I think I am the only one to keep the memory of loved ones known, and try to beg God for mercy on the dead. This is a sad stage in our the evolving of our society.

Today happens to be anniversary of death that I am recalling, four people from widely different backgrounds and vocations:

  • Blessed Pope John XXIII‘s 50 years since his death
  • Aunt Helen, 2002
  • Dom Basil Pennington, OCSO, monk, abbot, and author, Spencer, MA, 2005
  • Father Raghed Ganni and 3 subdeacons killed in Mosul, Iraq, 2007
John XXIII, was the supreme pontiff less than 5 years, was the smiling pope who called the Second Vatican Council, Aunt Helen was a wife and mother, Dom Basil was a Trappist monk of St Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, MA who was a prolific writer on the spiritual life and on Cistercian life, and Father Raghed Ganni and the subdeacons we gunned down for being Christian in a context of Islamic persecution. Of note, pilgrims from Blessed John’s native region in Italy will be at Mass today and meet with Pope Francis. It is a good thing to remember our loved ones. They still are a part of our lives; they make up our DNA.
Let’s offer a prayer for all these people asking God the Father of Mercies to be gentle and loving. But let’s ask these people to ask God to bestow mercy upon us.

Christian martyrs of Iraq?

Christians martyrs appeal.jpgThere is a movement afoot to investigate the sanctity of those Christians killed in Iraq just for being Christian, perhaps leading to having these Christians being canonized saints. Interesting question…

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” Tertullian said. Are these women and men true seeds of Christianity in the 21st century?

Communion & Liberation invites prayer for Iraqi Christians on Sunday

Thumbnail image for Fraternity CL Logo.JPGCommunion and Liberation follows the call of the
Italian bishops to pray Sunday, November 21 for the Christians of Iraq, “who
are suffering the tremendous trial of blood witness to the faith” (Final
communiqué of the Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference, November 11, 2010).


The
Movement invites all its members to participate in Mass according to the
intentions of Benedict XVI, who the day after the grave attack in the Syrian
Catholic cathedral of Baghdad that left dozens dead and wounded, said, “I pray
for the victims of this absurd violence, all the more savage because it struck
defenseless people gathered in God’s house, which is a house of love and
reconciliation. I also express my affectionate closeness to the Christian
community, struck once again, and encourage the pastors and faithful to be
strong and steady in hope. In the face of the heinous episodes of violence that
continue tearing the populations of the Middle East to pieces, I renew my
grieved call for peace: it is the gift of God, but also the result of the
efforts of people of good will, of national and international institutions. May
everyone join their strengths to put an end to all violence! (Comments after
the Angelus, November 1, 2010).


Addressing all members of Communion and
Liberation, Fr. Julián Carrón said that “participation in Sunday Mass according
to the intentions of the Pope and the bishops is a gesture of real communion
and charity because we feel that the Christians of Iraq are our friends, even
if we do not know them directly.”


As Fr. Giussani said, “If the sacrifice is
accepting the circumstances of life, as they happen, because they make us
correspondent, participants in the death of Christ, then sacrifice becomes the
keystone of all life […] but also the keystone for understanding the history of
man. The entire history of man depends on that man dead on the cross, and I can
influence the history of man – I can influence the people who live in Japan
now, the people in danger at sea now; I can intervene to help the pain of the
women who lose their children now, in this moment – if I accept the sacrifice
that this moment imposes.” (L. Giussani, Is It Possible to Live This Way? Book
3: Charity, McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 74-75.)

Iraqi Christians Pray Rosary.jpg
For this reason, added
Carrón, “if a gesture of prayer can influence the change of people in Japan, it
can also change something in Iraq. May the sacrifice we make for the Christians
of Iraq and Sunday’s prayer be a gesture with which we invoke, implore from God
protection for them.”




The Communion & Liberation Press Office
Milan, Italy
November 18, 2010

Bishop Declares Humanitarian Emergency in Mosul

As a follow-up to a request for prayers for the Dominican sisters in Mosul the other, I am republishing Edward Pentin’s article for Terrasanta.net here to give further background to the situation in Iraq, especially since the Western press and politics have virtually ignored the plight of Iraqui Christians.

 

The news has escaped much of the mass media, but Christian families are leaving Mosul, Iraq, in their droves to escape a concerted campaign of violence and intimidation.

 

Chaldean Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona has said that Mosul is experiencing a “humanitarian emergency” and that “hundreds of Christian families” left the city Feb. 24 in search of shelter, leaving behind their homes, property, commercial activities, according to Asia News. The situation “is dramatic”, he said.

 

The families have chosen to flee after a spate of violent attacks which left five Christians dead last week, and members of a whole family murdered on Tuesday. “In one house all the family members were killed — five people,” said an Iraqi member of Open Doors, a non-denominational charity helping persecuted Christians, Christian News Wire reported. “First the attackers drove by and shot from their car. Then they forced themselves into the house and gunned down the entire family. They even threw two bodies outside the house as a cruel warning for others.”

 

Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk has launched “a demonstration and a fast” to sensitize the international community to the “massacre of Iraqi Christians” and stop the violence in the country. Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his deep concern and sorrow over the continuing wave of violence. Vatican Radio and the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reported Feb. 24 that although the Pope is on retreat and not speaking publicly, he expressed his sorrow that “in the area of Mosul, the killing of Christians continues.”

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, told Iraq‘s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, that the Pope expresses his “sincere solidarity” with him and other leaders after a series of attacks on government buildings and on places of worship, both Muslim and Christian. “He prays with fervor for an end to the violence and asks the government to do everything possible to increase security around all places of worship throughout the country,” Cardinal Bertone wrote. Bishop Emil Nona fears that “Mosul will be emptied completely of Christians” and will visit Baghdad to plead for help from the national government in establishing some minimal security for the city’s religious minority. The attacks have taken place in the run-up to elections in Iraq on March 7th. Basile Georges Casmoussa, Syrian Archbishop of Mosul, said elections always bring troubles, “but not to the point of killing people, particularly Christians. The Christians were killed not because of their politics, but because they are Christians.”

 

Speaking to Terrasanta.net Feb. 22nd, Archbishop Sako said the elections are prompting struggle between political groups made up of Arabs and Kurds. “They are fighting to have authority, power and also the economy and there’s a big tension,” he said, adding that in Mosul they are “pushing the Christians to get out of the city – that is their main purpose.” He warned that lack of security is due to a political vacuum in Mosul, with Arabs running the city without sharing power with the Kurds, although he said he remains hopeful that peace could return after the elections.

 

In a speech given Monday to the Sant’Egidio community in Rome, Archbishop Sako warned that in the coming years more Iraqi Christians are likely to flee the country due to violence by Islamic extremists and fears over the introduction of Sharia law. “They think of the Jews who were once in Iraq but are not there anymore and they are thinking it’s their turn to leave,” he said. “This is what people are thinking about.”

 

He also said Iraqi Christians feel neglected by the West. “[They] have the impression of being forgotten by the West that is secular,” he said. “In the past, some might have wanted to protect Christians but now we have the impression of being isolated and forgotten by all.” The Vatican nuncio to Iraq, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, warned in an interview with Vatican Radio Feb. 25 that Christians have been in Iraq for 2,000 years, so “any attempt to decrease the Christian presence or, worse, to destroy the Christian presence in Iraq would mean destroying the history of the Iraqi nation.”

Iragi Christian community & the Dominican sisters in danger: Urgent prayers needed

This afternoon, I received a request for prayers, which I now recommend to you, for the Christians in Iraq. The following note was sent by Sister Donna Markham, the Prioress of the Adrian Dominicans:

This evening I have received very tragic news about the situation in Iraq . I have just returned from being with the 5 Iraqi sisters who are with us in Adrian . Today, all the Christians have fled from Mosul. There have been murders and rapes of Christians there and for now they are fleeing to the Christian villages. Sister Maria is very frightened about the safety of the sisters and the Christian people. As of now, the five elderly sisters who have been holding down the Motherhouse are choosing to remain there because they do not want to lose their Motherhouse to the terrorists. She said most Christians are making plans to evacuate from Iraq and, as a consequence, she does not know what will happen with her Congregation. She said they will follow the Christian people where they go, but where that will be is uncertain. The sisters’ families remain in grave danger and, as you can imagine, the young ones with us and with Springfield are terrified. As of now, nothing is being reported in the US press. She asks if any of us know people in Washington whom we could contact and tell the story, to please do so. Most importantly, she asks for our prayers.
Join the Facebook page “Save Christians in Iraq“
May Our Lady of Peace, pray for us.
Saint Dominic and Dominican saints and blesseds, pray for us.