Source: Gazzettino
By Giulia Quaggio
Translated by Baghdadhope
"I am here to remind the Italians what is happening in Iraq, because before being a Christian I am a member of the Iraqi people". So Mgr.Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Archbishop of Baghdad, during a visit to Venice where, with Pax Christi, introduces the long and difficult chronicle of the conditions of Christians in Iraq after the abduction and death of the Chaldean bishop of Mosul Faraj Rahho. He wants to remind the West the conflict, because before internal strives, ethnic and religious clashes, even before the politics, Mgr. Warduni thinks that there must be reconciliation for a nation that since a long time doesn’t live in peace. In last April there were thousands victims of the conflict that began in 2003 are four million and a half refugees.
Christians, who in the late nineties were one million, now are about only 650 thousand. "The emigration concerns not only Christians – says Mgr. Warduni - but especially the Muslims who are numerically more. The West should never forget, as sometimes happens, that to live in war is not only politics but above all an exhausted and often defenceless population. I disagree with those who want to confine Christians in protected areas. When a Christian is killed it is known, when a Muslim is killed it is more difficult that the piece of news is reported. I never close the door of my Church to anyone. "
According to Mgr. Warduni the situation in Iraq is worsening day by day. A small hell made of booby-trapped cars and flying checkpoints too often forgotten by the media. "Where is the democracy of which the world speaks of?" - says Mgr. Warduni - "kidnappings against priests multiply. We don’t have electricity, if not for an hour or two a day. There are generators but not gasoil in a land that could give to live to all Middle East. Fixed phones don’t exist. The insecurity in which we live is unimaginable. God does not want war."
Only in the north of Iraq now, despite the increase in prices and housing a large part of the Christian community is moving. According to Mgr. Warduni also information in western media is inadequate about what's happening in Iraq. “There are not journalists - says Mgr. Warduni - some areas of the city are off-limits and some issues are not discussed for fear.”
Mgr.Warduni points his finger to the existing division among Iraqi Christians (who represent the 3% of the population). The 70% of them is Chaldean and there are smaller percentages of Nestorians-Assyrian, Syriac Catholics and Orthodoxes. However according to Mgr. Warduni, even if the division is deeply rooted in Christianity, it is the attitude of the Protestant sect, that impose forced baptisms, to be condemned. The death of Mgr. Faraj Rahho, left to die without medicines from his kidnappers, although there are still doubts about the actual causes of his death, is accompanied by the tragic fate of other slaughtered priests. The same Mgr. Warduni during a shifting of a few metres in Baghdad, risked to die for the gusts of a machine-gun coming from a black windows Jeep: Iraqi Muslims helped him.
Yesterday evening, just to recall the fundamental role of the international community in the pacification of Iraq, Mgr. Warduni with Mgr. Beniamino Pizziol, auxiliary bishop of Venice celebrated a Mass in memory of the victims of Iraqi war in the Basilica of San Marco.
Christians, who in the late nineties were one million, now are about only 650 thousand. "The emigration concerns not only Christians – says Mgr. Warduni - but especially the Muslims who are numerically more. The West should never forget, as sometimes happens, that to live in war is not only politics but above all an exhausted and often defenceless population. I disagree with those who want to confine Christians in protected areas. When a Christian is killed it is known, when a Muslim is killed it is more difficult that the piece of news is reported. I never close the door of my Church to anyone. "
According to Mgr. Warduni the situation in Iraq is worsening day by day. A small hell made of booby-trapped cars and flying checkpoints too often forgotten by the media. "Where is the democracy of which the world speaks of?" - says Mgr. Warduni - "kidnappings against priests multiply. We don’t have electricity, if not for an hour or two a day. There are generators but not gasoil in a land that could give to live to all Middle East. Fixed phones don’t exist. The insecurity in which we live is unimaginable. God does not want war."
Only in the north of Iraq now, despite the increase in prices and housing a large part of the Christian community is moving. According to Mgr. Warduni also information in western media is inadequate about what's happening in Iraq. “There are not journalists - says Mgr. Warduni - some areas of the city are off-limits and some issues are not discussed for fear.”
Mgr.Warduni points his finger to the existing division among Iraqi Christians (who represent the 3% of the population). The 70% of them is Chaldean and there are smaller percentages of Nestorians-Assyrian, Syriac Catholics and Orthodoxes. However according to Mgr. Warduni, even if the division is deeply rooted in Christianity, it is the attitude of the Protestant sect, that impose forced baptisms, to be condemned. The death of Mgr. Faraj Rahho, left to die without medicines from his kidnappers, although there are still doubts about the actual causes of his death, is accompanied by the tragic fate of other slaughtered priests. The same Mgr. Warduni during a shifting of a few metres in Baghdad, risked to die for the gusts of a machine-gun coming from a black windows Jeep: Iraqi Muslims helped him.
Yesterday evening, just to recall the fundamental role of the international community in the pacification of Iraq, Mgr. Warduni with Mgr. Beniamino Pizziol, auxiliary bishop of Venice celebrated a Mass in memory of the victims of Iraqi war in the Basilica of San Marco.