Aid to the Church in Need: Iraq Bishop: Christians longing to leave Iraq

Iraq Bishop: Christians longing to leave Iraq

Posted by Press release on 2/10/2008, 9:42 am
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ACN News, Thursday, 2nd October 2008 – IRAQ

Iraq Bishop: Christians longing to leave Iraq

By John Pontifex and John Newton

AN ARCHBISHOP from Baghdad has warned of how fear is continuing to drive Christians out of Iraq – but went on to highlight new signs of hope.

In a very frank and forthright assessment of the crisis in Iraq given at Aid to the Church in Need UK’s annual Westminster Event on Saturday (27th September), Archbishop Jean Sleiman said a “paralysing fear” is still gripping the country’s Christian communities.

The archbishop of Iraq’s 5,000-strong Latin-rite Catholic community stressed that most Christians in Iraq still wanted to leave the country in spite of the decline in violence in and around Baghdad as well as the massive reconstruction taking place in the Kurdish north.

Continued emigration from Iraq spells disaster for the Christian community which has dwindled from about one million in 2003 to barely 400,000 today.

He said: “Emigration remains the dream of most people. The hope of emigration – even when it is not realistic – represents a kind of salvation for the people.”

“Very real persecution” remains a huge threat for Christians in some areas, said the archbishop, who also explained that in other regions “co-existence under pressure” means that Christians are forced to adopt Islamic practices, including dress, and were encouraged to leave.

The archbishop re-iterated his message in meetings with senior government officials and leading UK bishops including Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster.

(Archbishop Sleiman meeting with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor)

Archbishop Sleiman, who before his address in Westminster Cathedral Hall, celebrated a Solemn Mass for ACN in Westminster Cathedral, stressed that new signs of hope were coming with support from organisations and charities such as ACN.

After Archbishop Sleiman’s talk, ACN supporters heard the charity’s Press and Information officer John Pontifex report back two weeks after returning from Iraq where ACN was called upon to help with a range of pastoral and some humanitarian projects.

ACN’s work – which priorities help for formation and Mass offerings as well as food projects – comes amid reports of continuing Christian displacement from Baghdad, Mosul and other regions which Archbishop Sleiman said were still hot-spots of persecution and violence against minority groups.

The archbishop, who said it was unsafe for him to walk in Baghdad, warned of how growing Islamic extremism was reducing non-Muslims to second class citizens, with pressure to wear the veil and conform to other Islamic practices.

The Lebanese Carmelite’s comments came after the Iraqi parliament announced plans to scrap the quota of seats in provincial councils set aside for minority groups, including Christians.

The archbishop said those seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north were suffering exploitation masked by acts of generosity and good-will seen in the regional government’s massive church reconstruction projects.

The archbishop told how Caritas’ general director thanked a Kurdish official for building homes for displaced people from Baghdad only to be told by the officer: “We did it for us [Kurds]. We know that you will leave and these houses will be ours.”

Archbishop Sleiman said that, instead of relocating Christians to the north, “the best way to protect, not only Christians but all the citizens, is to bring back the state of law in Iraq.”

He went on to slam plans for a so-called enclave for Christians around the ancient Nineveh Plains, dismissing the scheme as promoting “a ghetto”.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org