Remember the Iraqi Christians

SAD NEWS reaches us every day from Iraq. Bombings, kidnappings and all sorts of violence are reported regularly. Among the victims of this violence one finds the very small Christian community in the country. Their situation is so bad that Fides, the Asian Catholic news service, described life as a nightmare for Christians in the city of Mosul.

Mosul dates back to the time of Jonah. Its name was then Niniveh. It used to be a quite town where people of different religious persuasions lived together. Today it is a totally different story. The situation is serious. Christians live in constant fear of being attacked, kidnapped and killed by radical Islamic groups of terrorists. It is important to note that the enemies of the Christians are not the Muslims but terrorists who describe themselves as Islamic groups.

A frightened nun told Fides that armed groups of Islamic fundamentalists break into homes of Christians to kill and steal. While most Muslims would not approve of such attacks there are some extremist imams who teach that it is not a crime to kill a Christian. Such hate is leaving its toll on the country and its Christian minority.

The nun speaks from personal experience. "This is a manhunt against Christians, and life is a nightmare. Not long ago one of my relatives was taken hostage and kept tied up and blindfolded for five days without food. They tortured him to convince him to convert to Islam. He refused, and eventually the family paid a ransom, and he was released. But many other less fortunate people who were kidnapped were killed.

"All our families feel threatened. The situation is chaotic and Christians are an easy target because they do not react with violence; they are unarmed. Our families are too afraid to send children to school and the women hardly ever leave the house. One of our Chaldean priests was threatened and forced to move away because he held a funeral for a Christian youth who was killed. In fact many Christians are leaving for Syria, Jordan or the Kurdish region of northern Iraq."

The situation has been going from bad to worse. In 2003 Fides reported several episodes of Islamic fundamentalist pressure on Christians in Mosul. A year ago, after months of threats, the Chaldean Catholic bishop's residence was attacked by a group of armed men. The bishop had received many letters threatening Christians with death if they did not convert to Islam. After the attack Christian religious leaders appealed to the people of Mosul to isolate the extremists.

A few days ago churches in Baghdad were the target of a spate of bombing attacks. This was considered to be "more than a warning" to Christians, according to the Apostolic Nuncio in Iraq, Archbishop Fernando Filoni. "We are not just facing idle threats but concrete deeds against churches of different Christian denominations," he said.

Archbishop Filoni said that Christians face a precarious situation in Iraq today. He observed that the regime of Saddam Hussein ordinarily allowed Christians to worship freely, although there were periods of persecution. Previous governments had also treated Christians harshly, he notes, so that "persecution is not something new" in Iraq.

Nevertheless, the papal nuncio stressed that "Christians do not want to leave" their homeland today. The Christian community is longing for peace, and hopes to lives in peaceful coexistence with the Muslim majority, he said.

Every cloud has its silver lining. In the wake of attacks on churches in Iraq that prompted some Christians to emigrate, the archdiocese of Turin has launched a plan to 'adopt' Catholic priests in that country.

The project, entitled "I Have a New Friend: An Iraqi Chaldean Priest", will start by helping 10 young parish priests of Baghdad. As a result of this scheme money is sent to these priests to improve the conditions of life of the communities themselves, by committing themselves to invest in the measure allowed by the situation.

The founders and directors of the project are Italian Fr Fredo Olivero, who heads the archdiocesan Office of Pastoral Care for Emigrants; and Iraqi Fr Douglas Shamshoon Al Bazi, parish priest of the Chaldean churches of Mar Mari and Mar Ephrem in Baghdad, and director of the Baghdad Catechesis Center.

The organisers stipulate that whoever commits himself to adopt an Iraqi priest must do so for at least one year. The amount established "for the year 2004 is €1,000" which "corresponds to the total annual figure that young Iraqi priests receive", Fr Olivero added.

The project provides for direct contact between the priest and those who adopt it, which can be one person or a group.

Those interested in helping out can contact Fr Olivero via f.olivero@diocesi.torino.it or Fr Sahmshoon Al Bazi via frdbazi@hotmail.com