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Round Gospel News Team is bringing you a News from the Midddle East Christians
suffering persecutions "dissolving" in front of the eyes of its own
people in its ancient homelands in the Middle East, according to a senior
Archbishop from the stricken region.
Mgr Bashar Matti Warda, Archbishop
of Erbil in Iraq, said a "massive" migration was now occurring as
Christians fled from where they are hated.
"We are hated because we
persist in wanting to exist as Christians," the Chaldean prelate told the news agency Fides.
Mgr Warda, of the Congregation of
the Most Holy Redeemer, said: "For the Chaldean Church, and our sister
churches of the East, the persecution our community is enduring is doubly
painful and severe.
"We are personally affected by
the need, and by the reality that our vibrant church life is dissolving in
front of our eyes."
He said the "deeply
sorrowful" reality was that the flight of the persecuted was leaving the
Church "much weaker", but he could not in all conscience persuade
Christians to remain. All they could do now was wait for military aid or other
relief from abroad.
"We who are part of the church
hierarchy are very often tempted to encourage our parishioners to stay – keep
the presence of Christ alive in this special land. But truly I and my brother
bishops and priests can do no more than to advise young mothers and fathers to
take all the necessary considerations into account and to pray long and hard
before taking such a momentous, and perhaps perilous, decision.
"The Church is unable to offer
and guarantee the fundamental security that its members need to thrive."
He said hatred of minorities had
intensified over the past few years but it was difficult to understand.
"We are hated because we
persist in wanting to exist as Christians. In other words, we are hated because
we persist in demanding a basic human right."
He urged the wider Church to pray
for all refugees in Iraq and around the world and also to raise awareness of
the risk that the Church in Iraq might not survive.
"I cannot repeat...loudly
enough that our well-being, as a historic community, is no longer in our hands.
The future will come, in one way or the other, and for us this means waiting to
see what sort of aid – military, relief aid – arrives."
So far, more than 5,000 families
have fled Iraq since last summer, with some now in Europe, the United States or
Australia but many stranded indefinitely in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
The Archbishop's community in Erbil
has made shelters in church gardens and halls, catechism classrooms, public
schools, tents, unfinished buildings and in rented houses where the Church is
accommodating in some cases up to 30 people in one house. The Church has also
set up 1,700 caravans around Erbil to house the 2,000 families living in tents
and unfinished buildings before winter sets in.
In addition, the Chaldeans have
opened two medical centres to offer free medical services to the refugee
community. The Sacred Heart Sisters from India are running St. Joseph's clinic
with the help of 12 young doctors, serving 2000 patients at a monthly cost of
US$ 42,000. They are adapting another building as a maternity and child care
hospital and have opened a trauma response centre. They are also providing
education for refugee children.
The Chaldean Catholic Church,
founded between the first and third centuries, was until the 16th century part
of Assyrian Church.
Pray for them...
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