Fonte: Sir
“Without Christians, Iraq is a poorer country. It would be a disaster for cohabitation, for tolerance, and not only for Iraq but for all the Middle East”. This was powerfully repeated by the Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, mgr. Louis Sako, as he spoke today on the final day of the national meeting the of diocesan delegates for ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, promoted by the Italian Bishops Conference. The archbishop spoke of the situation in which the Christian communities currently are, “one half of whom have by now fled abroad or undergo abuse, rape, murder and abductions, under false religious pretexts. Iraq is a country torn by terrorists, whose leaders are not Iraqis but come from foreign countries, the cultural class has been scattered away. Christians – he added – are taken as scapegoats, to be eradicated, to be kicked out, with a view to establishing an Islamic state. They are considered ‘dhimmi’, i.e. second-rate citizens”, with all this implies in terms of rights and freedoms.
“We can celebrate our cults but we cannot announce the Gospel. There are Muslims who secretly come asking to be baptised, but then they are forced to escape. There is no conscientious freedom, so conversions to other religions are not allowed”. However, this does not hinder dialogue: “there is the dialogue of life with Islam. To our Muslim brothers, we testify our faith in God through faithfulness, Christian morality, patience, forgiveness, humbleness. We testify God through charity. Christians – pointed out mgr. Sako – have been in Iraq since before Islam, they are the pioneers of the Iraqi civilisation, they have translated the texts of medicine, law, literature, philosophy, they have always defended the geographical integrity, behaving faithfully, loyally and honestly towards their country. That’s why an Iraq without Christians is a poorer Iraq, it is no longer the cradle of cohabitation”.