(Amman) – A letter to the Nuncio in Iraq and Jordan, mgr. Francis Assisi Chullikat, to recall the bleak state in which the Iraqi refugees are living in Jordan. It was written, along with a group of local intellectuals, by father Raymond Moussalli, Chaldean patriarchal vicar to Jordan, who, in the Hashemite kingdom, has taken care of Iraqi refugees for a long time, in particular the Christian refugees, who are about 15 thousand. “We have recently met the Iraqi deputy president, Tarek al-Hashemi – states the vicar to SIR – to whom we repeated what we wrote in the letter, that is, that the Christians are the original inhabitants and citizens of Iraq by right, and that the State has a duty to protect them. We want to live together with Muslims”.
Father Moussalli trusts the EU a lot: “We want to raise the awareness of the EU and its countries of Catholic tradition, such as Italy, Spain, France, so that they will do something for the Iraqi Christians, for instance lobbying the Government. Opening the boundaries to take in the refugees would push even more Iraqis to leave the country; it would be most helpful instead, as well as taking them in, to try to restore, in the country, those conditions that are useful and essential to make the refugees come back. The international community cannot remain indifferent to the massacre of Christians in Iraq”.
And, while waiting for the situation to improve, “let’s see the result of the election of March 7th”, states father Moussalli, who keeps working to assist the Iraqi refugees who come to Amman: “As a Chaldean Church, we try to assist them as soon as they arrive, offering them a chance to study, attend informal school classes, having at least some health care. They survive by working off the books, those who can have some money of their own that they earned by selling their possessions in Iraq, or with the help of family and friends. The only aids we receive come from the Caritas organisations and the other Christian Churches. The exhortation to the Bishops of the world to effectively help the Christians in the Middle East, that was made yesterday by the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, as part of Good Friday Collection (see daily news of March 8th, at 13.27 h), is a great help and encouragement to us”.