"La situazione sta peggiorando. Gridate con noi che i diritti umani sono calpestati da persone che parlano in nome di Dio ma che non sanno nulla di Lui che è Amore, mentre loro agiscono spinti dal rancore e dall'odio.
Gridate: Oh! Signore, abbi misericordia dell'Uomo."

Mons. Shleimun Warduni
Baghdad, 19 luglio 2014

11 febbraio 2008

International Delegation of Pax Christi to Iraq 11 - 19 Feb. 2008

Source: PAXCHRISTI ITALY

Translated by Baghdadhope

"The evil, with its load of pain, seems toh ave no limits in Iraq, as the sad news of the past days show. I again
raise my voice in favor of that sorely tried population and invoke the peace of God"
these the words by Benedict XVI for the Angelus of Sunday, February 3.
The tragedy of violence and war in that land and in too many parts of the world doesn’t stop.
During the March for the Peace, on the night of December 31 2007 in Bergamo, Mgr.Marc Stanger, president of Pax Christi France, called everyone to partecipate to a path of solidarity with Christians and Iraqi people oppressed by violence: "Pâques avec les Chrétiens Iraq 2008”. The proposal has been followed up and, in addition to an action of prayer and solidarity proposed by the French church in this time of Lent and Easter, an international delegation to Iraq was organized.
The 'official delegation' of Pax Christi from France and Italy, will leave for Iraq on February 11.
It twill be led by Msgr. Marc Stenger bishop of Troyes, and national chairman of Pax Christi France. From 11 to 19 February, it will meet the local Christian communities in the north of Iraq (Erbil, Kirkuk, Dook, Zakho ...) who are living a situation of suffering and violence unheard-of, accompanied by a sense of loneliness and abandonment. Many are the refugees and many the families victims of kidnappings or killings ..
The delegation is composed by a dozen people. Our delegate will be don Renato Sacco, from Pax Christi Italy and parish priest in the diocese of Novara. In the delegation there will be also Paola Gasparoli, from 'A Bridge to..'.
The meaning of this visit can be found in the following words. They seem to be have been written today while – as a confirmation of a tragedy that has lasted too many years, when someone said, unhearded, that War is a no return adventure - were pronounced by Mgr. Diego Bona, president of Pax Christi Italy before leaving as member of a delegation to Iraq on June 4, 1998 (ten years ago!). "Our presence in Iraq is primarily intended to express our solidarity to Iraqi families who pay on their skin the very high price of a drama that does not create neither attention nor international relief."
After the trip, conjunctively with a simultaneous press conference in France, a press conference will be held in Italy to give voice to the people and describe the situations encountered.