Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) - Fear and emergency for Iraqi Christians as attacks on churches continue. On 9 January in Kirkuk two car-bombs exploded close to the Chaldean church of the Sacred Heart and the Syrian Orthodox church of Mar Ephrem. The damage was material and no one was hurt, Aswat al-Iraq reports citing local police. After these recent explosions and earlier attacks on churches on 6 January, in which two people were injured, the people are to afraid to go to church and they live an ever more isolated and segregated life.
The difficult conditions of Iraq Christians were mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI in his annual New Year address to Diplomats in the Vatican on January 7: “ In Iraq too, reconciliation is urgently needed! At present, terrorist attacks, threats and violence continue, especially against the Christian community, and the news which arrived yesterday confirms our concern; it is clear that certain difficult political issues remain unresolved. In this context, an appropriate constitutional reform will need to safeguard the rights of minorities” the Pope said.
Christian church leaders in Iraq have urged the local authorities to provide more protection for religious minorities and to stop the attacks by extremists aimed at preventing the stabilisation of the country. The Iraq prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, when he met the Papal Nuncio to Jordan and Iraq Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikat, condemned attacks on churches and he underlined the strong bonds which exist between Christians and Muslims in Iraq. Local and national civil authorities expressed solidarity and promised to intervene, but the situation remains difficult.
Mosul was the city most affected by bomb explosions on January 6, where material damage was greater than in Baghdad, Baghdadhope reports. Mgr Shleimun Warduni, Patriarch Vicar of Chaldeans said the buildings damaged included the Chaldean church of Saint Paul, a convent of Dominican Sisters (with serious damage including the destruction of a replica of the Grotto of Lourdes), an orphanage run by Chaldean sisters, the Chaldean church of the Holy Spirit. The faithful continue to pray: in St Paul's church the Chaldean Bishop Faraj P. Rahho, said Mass with a few dozen faithful, some priests and deacons, the Sunni Muslim governor of Ninive Duraid Kahsmoula.
In Baghdad Mgr Warduni confirmed attacks on the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George at Saha Al Taharriyat, and the Chaldean Mar Ghorghis church at Ghadir and Chaldean Saint Paul's church at Zafaraniya, adjacent to the convent of the Chaldean sisters and close to the convent of the Sisters of St Catherine.
According to the Iraqi government and the World Health Organisation, between March 2003 and June 2006, some 150,000 people were killed in violence in Iraq. (Agenzia Fides 10/1/2008 righe 32 parole 329)
