By Fides
"We encourage lay Christians to be involved in politics, to take up their full responsibility, and if there was a possibility, to enter the government coalition, to give a direct contribution to an Iraq in which peace, security, and rights triumph." This is the hope expressed in an interview with Fides by Bishop Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the Chaldean Patriarchate of Baghdad, while positive results are being seen in post-election Iraq, for the alliance of Prime Minister Al-Maliki and the national list of former premier Iyad Allawi. "It's hard to comment today on the complicated part of this post-election time. But one fact should be noted... The major risk is that parties and factions consider their own interests, forgetting the common good of the country," said the Bishop. "Even for the Christians in politics, unity is necessary. We ask that all work to overcome fragmentation and ethnic and sectarian divisions, uniting for a greater good. Otherwise, Christians will be marginalized, becoming insignificant in the public arena." "We firmly hope that God may enlighten the minds and hearts of the rulers, so that they may think and act for the true good of the Iraqi people, for peace and security. We seek a strong and stable government, delivering on the promises of the election campaign, thanks to the support of the international community," Bishop Warduni tells Fides.
As for the current conditions of the Christian community in Iraq, the Bishop said: "There seems to be a slight improvement compared to the pre-election violence. This also depends on the fact that we have raised the voice of God and the whole world for help. Today, Christians are called to live in this delicate situation, making sacrifices, without only thinking of fleeing the country. Thus, we never tire of asking for the support of prayer from all the Christians of the world." About the project of creating an administrative unit with a Christian majority in the Nineveh Plain, Bishop Warduni said that "it would be unacceptable if it were a ghetto. Otherwise, the situation must be discussed, understood, studied, with the certainty that it should not and could not become the only enclave where Christians are imprisoned in Iraq. Our mission is to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the leaven in the mass of the Iraqi nation."