Source: SIR
“We need to understand if we are an ethnic group or a Church. If we are an ethnic group we are very mistaken, even politically. Ethnic boundaries are not the true borders of our contemporary society which is becoming more and more multi-religious and multi-ethnic”. In an interview with the SIR the Latin Archbishop of Baghdad, Mgr Jean B. Sleiman, urged the Christians of the country to go back to their evangelical roots. As a Church, we need to develop a broader and more open sense of community and communion”, explained the bishop according to whom “it is important to have an identity, a Christian identity which is open to diversity. We cannot forget our roots, but Christian roots are ecumenical by their very essence”.
An appeal, then, to unity, in the awareness that “Chaldeans are not the only inhabitants of Iraq; not every Christian is Chaldean. Sometimes, even Catholic media convey the false impression that in Iraq there are only Chaldeans. Indeed it is not so, even if some Chaldeans representatives are pleased to convey that impression. Last Synod even claimed the existence of a Chaldean nation. But these claims are contrary to the historical truth, to anthropological data and to political wisdom. Indeed, we do know that the name “Chaldean” was given by the Church to those Nestorians who asked for communion with the Church of Rome. This is history”. By virtue of their ecumenical vocation, Christians could not be confined to the Plain of Nineveh: “That of a safe region for Christians in the North of the country – he concluded – has already caused much damage and could cause even more damage in the future. As Iraqi bishops, we are opposed to it”.