Iraqi Christians:" Will they still be able to find the strenght?"

By Baghdadhope

It’s 7.15 when I arrive in St. Peter's Square. Rome is still deserted. I pass under the colonnade that leads to the hemicycle and in its center, just below the obelisk, a black stain makes me understand that I found whom I was looking for. The Chaldean priests, monks, deacons and seminarists are rehearsing the hymns that they will sing during the mass that soon will be held in suffrage of Mgr. Faraj Paulus Rahho.

At 7.45 o'clock, after the check by the officer of the Swiss Guards in possession of the list of the names of the about 50 persons invited to the ceremony, we cross the Bronze Door leading to the Apostolic Palace, and reach the second balcony where the chapel "Redemptoris Mater" intended to host the ceremony is.

The sight is astonishing, to say the least. 600 square meters of mosaics that express, as in the words used by Pope John Paul II in describing it: "a sign of the unity between all the Churches which you represent and the See of Peter ...[that has] … a particular ecumenical value and ... an important presence of the Eastern tradition in the Vatican”.

And really ecumenical is the mass. There are Chaldeans, it is obvious, priests and nuns who live in Rome but also in other cities, but also representatives, religious or not, of the Assyrian Church of the East and of the Syriac Catholic Church.

The eyes are surprised by such richness of decorations, the figures of saints and the representations of the sacred converge the attention to the altar, dominated by the Heavenly Mother. We sit down and the master of ceremonies, with a logic that escapes to all but that surely has a reason, gives the finishing touches: a nun here in the front, a priest from this row to the other. The lights of the flashes of the the cameras adds to the golden light of the chapel.
At 8.00 o’clock the door to the right of the chapel opens and, preceded by the concelebrants and the Gospel, enters Pope Benedict XVI accompanied by the melody that the Chaldean choir intones. They are some verses taken from the Chaldean Breviary from the liturgy of the "Friday of the martyrs", as Father Fadi Lion, who directs the choir, explains to me. They are about the blood of martyrs that becomes the seeds from which the future of the church blooms. The words of the Chaldean choir are echoed by those in Latin that start the celebration. The liturgy, apart from the Readings and the homily is in Latin, and this creates a special atmosphere, of an old but alive church.

But are the Pope’s words that everyone expects and listens carefully. His strong appeal launched on Sunday: "Stop massacres, stop violence, stop hate in Iraq" heartened many, gave hope, even if minimal, that someone will listen to his voice and that the persecution of Iraqi Christians can finish because, as the same Archbishop Rahho said: "Christians are not enemies of anyone, and their hearts must always remember the words that Christ said on the Cross " but at the same time, they should have their rights recognized because, always the words of the deceased bishop, "this is , our land". The words of the Pope, who retrace the agony of Archbishop Rahho and speak of his "unworthy burial", are addressed to all members of the Chaldean Church that in "Iraq suffers, believes and pray" and are of "greeting and encouragement" because they can "know how to find the strength to not lose heart in the difficult situation they are experiencing." Therefore, even if specifically related to the mournful event, they are symbolically linked to the passage of the Gospel of John (12:1-11) read by the deacon and next Chaldean priest Robert Said Jarjis, in which Jesus, in response to Judas Iscariot, who asked why Mary had used the perfumed oil by pouring it on our Lord feets rather than sell it and allocate the proceeds to the poor said, "Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

The words of the Gospel and those of the Pope, who concluded his homily with an invitation to Iraqi Christians to be "able to persevere in building a peaceful society on the path of progress and peace" are the answer that those who suffer on their skin the danger of being Christians in Iraq should look at.

"Being able to find the strength," "Being able to persevere in". Never, as in recent years, Iraqi Christians have shown that they know how to be Christians.
But the question is: although they "knew" how to find the strength and how to persevere, will they still “be able” to do it?

For a report of the ceremony by Vatican News Service click here

Some participants to the ceremony:

For the Chaldean Church

Mgr. Philip Najim, Procurator of the Chaldean Church to the Holy See and Apostolic Visitor in Europe

Mgr. Yousif I. Sarraf, Chaldean Bishop of Cairo

Deacon Robert Said Jarjis (Reading of the Gospel of John)
Father Ghazuan Baho (Reading from the Book of Isaiah)

Mgr. Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches

Mgr. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of the Vatican State

Mgr. Fernando Filoni, Substitute for the Secretariat of Vatican State and former Apostolic Nuncio in Iraq

Mons. Jean Luis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue

Mgr. Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States

Mgr. Antonio Maria Vegliò, Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches