Aid to the Church in Need: More Christians killed in Iraq

More Christians killed in Iraq

Posted by Press Release on 14/7/2009, 10:10 am
Board Administrator

ACN News: Tuesday, 14 July 2009 – IRAQ

More Christians killed in Iraq

By John Newton

RENEWED attacks on the Christian community in Iraq yesterday have left more than 40 people dead or injured.
Shortly after 7pm on Sunday night, 12th July) a car bomb exploded in front of the gates of St Mary’s Chaldean Church in Palestine Street in Baghdad.
The explosion occurred as churchgoers left Mass.
According to initial reports from Iraq, seven have been killed and around 30 were injured, with 18 requiring hospital treatment.
The explosion follows reports of bombs going off at three other churches in Baghdad at around 4.30pm Sunday afternoon. Reports stated eight people had been wounded.
Two of the churches attacked are named as St George’s Church in the Al-Ghadier section of Baghdad and St Joseph’s Church in the Al-Shurta section.
Aid to the Church in Need received the reports of the bombings from a priest working in the city.
Persecution and violence in the last six years have forced more than 200,000 Christians to flee to nearby countries including Jordan, Syria and Turkey, while upwards of 50,000 have sought refuge in the north of Iraq.
ACN has provided food and medical aid for Iraqi refugees in other Middle Eastern countries.
ACN has also supported religious Sisters distributing basic food parcels to displaced families in the north of Iraq, who were living in poverty.
Continued emigration from Iraq means disaster for the Christian community which has dwindled from about one million in 2003 to fewer than 400,000 today.
Archbishop Jean Sleiman of Baghdad, stressed at a recent ACN event, that “very real persecution” remains a huge threat for Christians in some areas.

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 130 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, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian 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