Iraqi youth tells synod martyrdom isn’t the only form of persecution

By Crux
Elise Harris

For Safa Al Alqoshy of Iraq, the trauma of terrorism goes beyond killing. It’s experienced in a more lasting way through the insecurity felt by those who have survived, but who face a future full of questions and frightening possibilities.

“It’s very important to pay attention that there is not only persecution by killing, there is a persecution by psychology, by feelings. You feel that you are alone, that you are not supported,” Safa Al Alqoshy said in an interview with Crux.

These feelings come about through a combination of factors, including a decline in employment opportunities, the quality of education, the lack of international support, but also primarily through the exodus of Iraq’s Christian community due to immigration, he said.

A Chaldean Catholic from Baghdad, Al Alqoshy, 26, was the only Iraqi youth delegate to the Oct 3-28 Synod of Bishops on young people, faith and vocational discernment. He left the synod unexpectedly earlier this week to be with his ailing mother, after delivering an emotional speech to synod participants that garnered the longest round of applause of the gathering thus far.

Christians in Iraq want to stay and witness to their faith, but the situation is unstable, he said, recalling how for some 120,000 people on Iraq’s Nineveh Plain, their lives were turned upside down during one night when ISIS invaded their towns in the summer of 2014.

“It’s not easy…They want to stay but at the same time they think about the future, the children of their children. So, between thinking of staying or emigrating, some events or something maybe happens like the ISIS invasion, and it makes them decide immediately to emigrate,” he said, calling such exits one of the most pressing problems Iraq faces.

With nationwide instability and an uncertain future, many people choose to go abroad, leaving previously tight-knit families torn apart by distance, he said, noting that his own family has suffered the same fate after several aunts, uncles and cousins chose to move abroad.

“Maybe from time to time on Facebook we tell each other hi,” he said, adding that “if we think about that, it has a psychological effect, because you start to feel that you are lonely. To each friend you say, ‘I hope to see you soon,’ but you will never see him again because he will go to Australia or America and you cannot reach there.”

In addition to the separation of families and the departure of loved ones, there are also the after effects of trauma or violence, Al Alqoshy said, recounting how he himself was kidnapped at age 12 by a group of terrorists who then returned him to his family after realizing they had taken the wrong child.

To this day, he still has occasional nightmare about being taken and blindfolded. On top of this, Al Alqoshy recalled how in 2009, he lost two friends in a car bomb attack outside of his parish.

“We were four standing there. Two of us said we would go, so see you next Friday, and the other two went to the bishops’ home to work, so they said ‘see you next week,’ but we never saw them again because they were killed by a car bomb waiting for them outside of the church,” he said.

“Now we are still laughing and joking and working in Iraq, but these things are still in our minds, even if now the situation is better. There are not a lot of car bombs, the kidnapping has become less, but every young person, every Iraqi, has these memories in their mind. So maybe this will have a negative effect in the future.”

In his speech, Al Alqoshy not only recounted the difficulties of living in a nation plagued by political instability where the Christian population is dwindling year by year due to persecution and, increasingly, emigration, but he also spoke of the murder of his friends and parish priests.

In his comments to Crux, he said that although ISIS has been defeated, security is still a widespread concern, even in the capital city of Baghdad. While terrorism and kidnappings have decreased, many people think “something will happen similar to what happened to the Christians in the north.”

“What’s the guarantee? Do I have any guarantees? No,” he said, noting that this is the question currently on everyone’s mind, prompting many people, especially Christians, to move abroad.

Because of this, emigration “is one of the most serious problems we have in Iraq,” he said, voicing concern that if the current emigration rate continues, Iraq will be empty of Christians in a matter of years.

When he speaks of the number of people who have been killed in recent years, most unfamiliar with the situation are “shocked,” Al Alqoshy said, noting that at least half of those who have died have been young.

“So you can imagine a family of five, one of the young people, one of the children, was killed, so this family will emigrate. So when one is killed, this family, four or five members, will emigrate,” meaning the losses are in fact much higher, he said, noting how in 2004 there were some 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, compared to the mere 400,000 left today.

“If the situation continues as it is, there will be no Christianity in Iraq,” he said, adding that “each young person in Iraq now, even if they don’t want to emigrate, they are thinking about it, because if they want to get married, they will think that they can’t make a real Christian family in this situation.”

“Maybe no one was expecting that Mosul and the towns on the Nineveh Plains would be occupied in five hours, so that makes even us in Baghdad think that maybe at any time something will happen like it did in the Nineveh Plains or Mosul.”

Al Alqoshy said a vast amount of misinformation on Iraq and the Middle East is put forward in the news and on social media, and as such, one of his main goals of the synod was to convey the reality of the situation.

“I have the responsibility to make a clear picture of my country, of my area, because a lot of people, even in social media or the news, they don’t show the reality of what’s going on. There are a lot of details, a lot of events, a lot of important things they don’t know about, so I have to talk about what’s going on in my country and my region,” he said.

On the other hand, Al Alqoshy said another objective is to keep in touch with the other young people he has met from all around the world who are also living in “miserable circumstances,” such as Vietnam, Pakistan and even some places in Europe.

“Maybe in Europe or America, their problem is not related to terrorism, it’s not related to persecution, but it’s also important, because the youth have enough freedom, but they are still away from the Church for other reasons,” he said, and cited the dangers of social media and the breakdown of the family as key concerns for western nations.

The reason he stays in contact, he said, is to remind himself that “I’m not alone, that there is someone praying for me, there is someone living in the same circumstances as me,” even if the situation is different.

In terms of what can be done to help young people, especially Christians, stay in Iraq and the Middle East, Al Alqoshy said more than emotional speeches are needed.

“We appreciate and need prayers, but we need more than prayers,” he said, “because every time when someone from Iraq gives a speech, all people start crying and clapping, but after that everyone forgets and goes home.”

Though some homes in Iraq’s Christian villages are being rebuilt, many people still have no place to stay, or they question how secure the situation is. Security is a major question for young people in particular, he said, adding that “young people are the foundation of the family, of society, of the Church, so we have to support these young people.”

For the situation to improve, Al Alqoshy suggested international pressure as a strategic means of helping Iraq get its act together.

As an example, he cited a story recounted during the synod by Cardinal Joseph Coutts of Karachi, who told the story of how a religious sister was forced to leave Pakistan because she was denied a visa, but it was later granted after the Vatican and other European countries began denying visas to Pakistanis.

“So, if we need or if we want to do something we will. We need some pressure on the governments, not only on Iraq, but on the European and American governments to make more effort to support these people,” Al Alqoshy said, adding that “we don’t only have clapping and crying.”

“We have to be more serious. We have to be more honest,” he said, noting that he has many tragic stories he could recount of life in Iraq, but more than sympathy, “we need actual movement.”

“I need something when I stand with young people from Iraq, talking with them, (telling them) not to emigrate, that when he asks me what I can do in Iraq, I have something to say other than ‘it’s our land, we are here from the first century.’ He knows that, but he wants something he can touch, some guarantee.”

Knights of Columbus teams with U.S. government to assist Christians in Iraq

By Aleteia
John Burger

A new collaboration between the Knights of Columbus and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) promises to expedite the material support Christians of the Near East require to rebuild and return to their homes in the wake of the Islamic State persecution.

USAID and the Knights signed a Memorandum of Understanding Thursday that will facilitate partnerships to help communities in the Middle East recover from genocide and persecution, USAID announced. USAID has over $195 million in planned and active assistance to support the recovery in Northern Iraq and is charged with implementing Vice President Mike Pence’s “Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Initiative in the Middle East Region,” which he announced a year ago.

The memorandum of understanding foresees that the cooperation between USAID and the Knights “will bring together funding not only from the U.S. government but also from a vast network of American philanthropists to assist the survivors of genocide and persecuted communities to reconstitute themselves after years of suffering and war.” The agency and the Catholic fraternal organization will work together to identify populations in need and assist them, convene local actors, advance pluralism, and collaborate on efforts to prevent future atrocities.

“The Knights of Columbus is pleased to work together with USAID in the important work being done to stabilize these communities and hope that our joint and combined efforts will bring hope and concrete improvement to the situation confronting minority communities targeted by ISIS,” said Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson in a statement.

USAID plans to work closely with the K of C and local faith and community leaders to deliver aid rapidly to persecuted communities, according to the memorandum. “Crucially,” the document states, “the support will flow directly to individuals and households most in need of help.”

To do that, USAID plans to rely on “the unique expertise and relationships of trust that organizations like K of C has forged with local and faith-based organizations in the region.”

The Knights of Columbus has already committed more than $20 million in aid to the region since 2014 and has been a leading U.S. and international advocate on behalf of the persecuted minorities. It plans to donate $5 million more over the next six months. The Knights also submitted a report two years ago detailing ISIS atrocities in the region. That report has been instrumental in genocide designations by successive U.S. secretaries of state since 2016.

“In the aftermath of ISIS’ campaign of genocide, Christian and Yazidi populations—and those of other religious minorities—in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region are under extreme pressure,” Anderson said. “Our work with USAID is intended to help these populations survive and prosper in lands they have called home for centuries, and even millennia. We cannot allow ISIS to succeed in driving them out.”

In December 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a military victory over the Islamic State, after a weeks-long battle to retake their last stronghold in Iraq, in Mosul. But some Christians there are still very cautious.

Chaldean Archbishop of Basra Habib Nafali said in a recent interview with Catholic News Service that he was fearful of renewed persecution because he believed that ISIS had not been defeated but had gone underground. He warned that there are so few Christians left in his country that the Church would disappear if it was subjected to another wave of persecution.

Sinodo: Chiesa e famiglia aiutino giovani a essere luce nell'oscurità

By Vatican News
Paolo Ondarza

Un’assemblea assorta, in ascolto, empatica, a tratti commossa quella della 10ma Congregazione del Sinodo. Soprattutto quando a parlare sono stati loro: i giovani, con quel desiderio di essere “luce vera nell’oscurità”, agenti del Vangelo nella sfera pubblica. In qualità di uditori, provenienti da varie parti del mondo, hanno offerto uno spaccato vivo della loro realtà richiamando l’attenzione sul diritto alla pace e alla stabilità, spesso dato per scontato, ma di cui tanti sono privati.

Il dramma dei giovani iracheni

Significativa la testimonianza di un iracheno che, invitando il Papa a visitare il suo martoriato Paese dove i cristiani sono una minoranza, ha raccontato una quotidianità fatta di minacce, rapimenti, uccisioni, fughe, come quella dei 120 mila fedeli dalla Piana di Ninive sotto la minaccia dell’Isis. Il timore grande – ha confidato – è che perdendo la fiducia nel futuro l’Iraq un giorno possa svuotarsi dei cristiani.

Guardare ai giovani di ogni cultura

Tra gli interventi dei vescovi è stata evidenziata la minaccia del fondamentalismo religioso e della corruzione che incombe sull’orizzonte di fede e speranza dei giovani. Come rispondere al desiderio di giustizia inscritto nel cuore dei giovani? I presuli propongono di agire innanzitutto su una buona formazione cristiana e umana, ma dicono “no” ad un approccio esclusivamente “occidentale”. L’invito è ad un cambiamento culturale: occorre una maggiore attenzione al tema della migrazione, della povertà e della perdita delle radici culturali che affligge tanti giovani nei Paesi del sud del mondo. Da questi luoghi va attinta anche la gioiosa testimonianza di fede: in alcuni paesi africani ad esempio l’aspirazione di un giovane alla vita consacrata o sacerdotale è una gioia per la famiglia e la società.

Più presenza femminile, meno clericalismo

Il Sinodo evidenzia poi la rabbia dei giovani di fronte alle ingiustizie, alle discriminazioni sociali, agli scandali, con l’appello ad aumentare la presenza femminile nella Chiesa e favorire una pastorale sensibile alla "parità di genere”. Le donne infatti – è stato notato - possono contribuire a spezzare quei “circoli clericali chiusi” che possono aver favorito l’insabbiamento degli abusi. Una testimonianza di approccio aperto a tutti, senza discriminazioni di sesso, razza o religione, è offerta dallo scoutismo. All’attenzione del Sinodo è stato posto anche il dramma di tanti migranti considerati “irregolari” con la raccomandazione che la Chiesa sia voce dei più vulnerabili.

Ecumenismo vivo negli interventi dei delegati fraterni

In aula infine gli interventi dei delegati fraterni designati dalle rispettive Chiese e Comunità Ecclesiali non ancora in piena comunione con la Chiesa Cattolica. Dopo il reverendo Tim Macquiban, direttore del Methodist Ecumenical Office, che questa mattina aveva messo in luce il valore dei movimenti laicali, nel pomeriggio hanno preso la parola altri 6 esponenti di diverse confessioni cristiane. Il Metropolita dei Dardanelli negli Stati Uniti, Nikitas Lulias, in rappresentanza del Patriarcato Ecumenico, ha invocato una nuova ondata di freschezza, un nuovo soffio dello Spirito che aiuti i cristiani a presentare la fede ai giovani senza formule rigide, nel rispetto della verità del Vangelo. Da parte sua il vescovo Atanasio di Bogdania delegato della Chiesa Ortodossa Romena ha posto in luce la necessità di favorire nei giovani attraverso preghiera e ascesi un rapporto personale, di amicizia, con Cristo in tempi caratterizzati da “maestri improvvisati che si autoproclamano detentori della verità. A nome della Federazione Luterana Mondiale, la giovane tedesca Julia Braband ha ricordato come i giovani non siano solo il futuro, ma il presente della Chiesa, pertanto vanno guardati negli occhi, ascoltati e resi partecipi. Il rappresentante valdese della Comunione Mondiale delle Chiese Riformate Marco Alfredo Fornerone ha sottolineato la “sorprendente vicinanza” con il Sinodo percepita durante questi giorni in Vaticano, con l’invito ad “osare fino in fondo l’apertura all’ascolto” perché – ha osservato - “la realtà è più importante dell’idea”. Altra giovane presenza femminile, rappresentante del Consiglio Mondiale delle Chiese, Martina Viktorie Kopecka ha puntato l’attenzione sulla chiamata rivolta da Dio a tutti i giovani ad essere mediatori e ponti nella convinzione che “tutti siamo figli amati da Dio”. Infine il vescovo anglicano di Nairobi in Kenya Joel Waweru Mwangi ha espresso apprezzamento sull’ascolto dei giovani da parte della Chiesa Cattolica e del Papa. Gli effetti della distruzione della famiglia – ha ammonito – saranno catastrofici al pari dei cambiamenti climatici e come cristiani siamo chiamati a denunciarli. L’importanza della famiglia e dei formatori, radici di cui i giovani come rami di un albero necessitano per crescere, è ritornata costantemente negli interventi dei Padri Sinodali.

Iraqi archbishop fears more persecution, says IS went underground

By Catholic News Service
Simon Caldwell

Christianity in Iraq is just one wave of persecution away from extinction, said the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Basra.

In an interview with Catholic News Service, Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali said there were now so few Christians in his country that the church there would disappear if it was subjected to further persecution.

He said the displacements and murders of Christians over the past 15 years constituted genocide.

“Another wave of persecution will be the end of Christianity after 2,000 years,” he said in the Oct. 5 interview in St. Columba’s Church.

“There is a global game, and the peaceful people — the minorities — in the end will be the ones who are destroyed,” he said.

He said he was fearful of renewed persecution because he believed the Islamic State terror group had not been defeated, but had gone underground. It was suspected of being behind a recent spate murders of women who had chosen to dress themselves in Western fashions, he said.

“We have seen with our own eyes how they attack Christians,” he added.

He said Iraq’s Christians had suffered “systematic violence” intended to uproot and eradicate them, to “destroy their language, to break up their families and push them to leave Iraq.”

“If this is not genocide, then what is genocide?” he asked.

Christians have lived in what was known as Mesopotamia since the time of the apostles and speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. But the archbishop said their number has plunged from 1.5 million to just 250,000 in the last 15 years, and they now represent about 1 percent of the population, compared to 6 percent a century ago.

In the decade that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a church or a monastery was destroyed every 40 days on average, the archbishop said.

“There are still more than maybe a quarter of a million of us struggling to stay in our homeland,” added Archbishop Nafali.

“Others went to more than 70 countries, which is a crime against humanity when you find Chaldeans and Syrians (Christians) everywhere — in Sweden, Denmark, in the U.K. and the United States.”

Besides the threat from terrorism, Christians continue to face discrimination in the labor market, with many of them finding it almost impossible to get a job because their faith is an obstacle to employment, he said. He added that such factors prevented the return of refugees.

The archbishop was in the U.K. as a guest of Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity that helps persecuted Christians around the world.

Iraq diary: Drinking sweet tea in West Mosul

By America Magazine (The Jesuit Review)
October 9, 2018
Kevin Clarke

Around us the rubble of West Mosul throws a fine white dust into the air that coats your clothing and grits your hair, covers your shoes and camera lens, and gets into just about everything else. I find myself briefly wondering what percentage of my newly acquired coating of Mosul particles represents vaporized human remains. But people were not the only things destroyed in this part of the Old City of Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Just a few blocks away, centuries of Muslim, Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox and Catholic and Armenian places of worship are now little more than piles of debris and gravel and dust. Some ornate door arches remain as depressing reminders of the church architecture that used to stand here, a clutch of faiths located together in the Old City. The church arches had already been defaced by ISIS militants with bullet blasts meant to remove crosses and other Christian symbols even before the walls around them were demolished by mortar rounds or U.S. and Iraqi air strikes. Of course, a spiteful ISIS in retreat did its best to destroy what it could, so who did which damage to what here is hard to say. The view from the collapsed roof of the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (also known as the Church of Al-tahira), parts of which date back to the seventh century, is especially disheartening. Though the sounds of hammers, cement mixers and construction saws at work rise to the roof of this broken church, the perspective it offers is one of utter destruction in all directions.

In the alley before the ruins of the Immaculate Conception church, a pile of satellite dishes, cable boxes and computer innards block the stairs to the collapsed roof. My impromptu guide to West Mosul, Yohanna Towaya, a professor at a branch of the University of Mosul in the Christian community of Qaraqosh, explains that ISIS had removed them from homes to prevent residents from accessing local and international television, then simply dumped the high-tech material accessories of modern life into the ancient church yard. He has made many trips into Mosul since its liberation from ISIS and considers his visits completely safe. “These people are Iraqis; I know them,” Mr. Towaya says. “The trouble came from outside,” he adds, referring to the largely foreign composition of ISIS fighters.

Just the night before I had been visiting with a regional security expert in Erbil, who went on at length about the dangers that awaited in Mosul. Among them: snipers, IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and Daesh—as ISIS is referred to here—sleeper cells looking for opportunities to kidnap Westerners.

He said the United Nations had recorded scores of “security incidents” over the last month in the city and area surrounding it. Two air strikes had been required; ISIS tunnels continue to be uncovered and weapons stashes are discovered.

“Who told you that ISIS is finished in this area?” he asked. “It is not; ISIS is reorganizing itself.” Its members have shaved their beards and melted back into the community, he warned. Whole villages around Mosul remain under ISIS control; their wives and children live in West Mosul, of course they are going back there, he said. “We are still finding bodies and booby traps…. Even the police can’t guarantee your safety.”

It was enough to guarantee a more or less sleepless night.

Now I am sitting here among strangers, Sunni Muslims who have returned to the gray dusty ruin of West Mosul to start over, and unbelievably I am sharing a small glass of sweet Iraqi tea with them on what is mostly a desolate block of near-collapsed buildings. Along this former commercial corridor, a scatter of small shops have reopened in breakouts of color among the gray and black of the blasted, burned-out storefronts.

The tea shop owner and his patrons seem legitimately happy to have an American among them, Westerners have become a rare sight in this part of Mosul, and residents are keen to show what hospitality they can muster under the circumstances. The shop owner opens a tap affixed to his alley wall to demonstrate that his business has been reconnected to the municipal tap water system. The tea he serves is hot and delicious and sweet well beyond the American palate.

The old men here seem happy to linger over their glasses while the young men drink up and move along, more business presumably to attend to somewhere else. Remembering my conversation last night, I find myself wondering who they are dialing on their cellphones as I finish my tea.

This location, the shop owner tells me, had been used as a storehouse for ISIS weapons. His old tea shop was located down the street but had been too badly damaged for him to consider reopening. The former ISIS munitions dump, however, makes a good restart for him. He manages about 10 customers during my visit.

One is a young man from the Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, eager to practice his English. Solane Ghazi explains that most of the people at the shop live in the remnants of what had been their homes. “This man’s house,” he says, pointing to one of the guests at the tea shop, “was eradicated completely.”

Mr. Ghazi is eager to send a message to the international community, imploring it to step in more vigorously to rebuild Mosul. Just about no one here—or for that matter anywhere else I have visited in Kurdistan or Iraq—has any confidence that the Iraqi central government has the capacity to respond to the challenge of rebuilding the city.

“They are poor people here,” Mr. Ghazi says. “They don’t have water; they don’t have enough money. Because of the destruction they have nothing, no food, no electricity.”

Mr. Ghazi was born and raised in Mosul. What has befallen his city is an utter disaster, he says, but he insists he has confidence that West Mosul can be restored.

“Of course,” he says, with a smile and a shrug. “When the people gather together and put their hands to work in Mosul, there is nothing impossible here.

“But it needs the people gathering their hands together. It needs schools, it needs hospitals—all of these things.”

A new kindergarten breathes life into a devastated Iraq community

By America Magazine (The Jesuit Review)
October 4, 2018
Kevin Clarke

Many of the children in this kindergarten in Qaraqosh, Iraq, were infants when Daesh stormed this Christian city in the early morning hours of Aug. 7, 2014. They are lucky that way at least; they will never remember the night of terror their parents and other family members experienced as they fled the city. Hundreds of families, more than 200,000 from villages across the Nineveh Plains, escaped in those frantic hours—some just minutes ahead of Daesh, as everyone in this city near the border with Iraqi Kurdistan calls the Islamic militants known as ISIS in the West. They fled packed in cars and trucks; less fortunate ones fled on foot.

Now, 17 months after the first of Qaraqosh’s wary residents returned to their old homes and a city in near ruin, the stores in the city center are open for business and families are out in the welcome cool of the early evening. They are shopping, heading to restaurants, arguing with friends or just enjoying a stroll. They must take care to avoid the construction debris all over the streets and sidewalks of the Iraqi city.

There are so many signs of life in this community, like these schoolchildren. Qaraqosh is clearly breathing again, just as clearly as its many smoke-blackened homes, demolished shops and defaced churches attest that much more work lies ahead.

The kindergarten is sponsored by the Jesuit Refugee Service, which selected a site for the school near a low-income family apartment complex that is supported by the Syriac Catholic Church. J.R.S.-Iraq hopes to give the children of these poor families a decent start in life and a walkable location to begin their education.

The 24 apartments in this modest complex that had been badly damaged by Daesh and the two units that had been completely obliterated by an Iraqi or U.S. missile strike have been restored. Bullet holes that pockmarked outer walls have been plastered over; exteriors have been brightly painted. The holes that Daesh blasted through adjoining apartment walls so they could move through the complex without being observed by sentinels flying above them have been repaired.

Now scores of the complex’s former residents, mostly Syriac and Chaldean Catholics, are back in their old homes. Among them is Nahla Behnam Azo. She has returned to her restored apartment and is overjoyed to be home with neighbors that she loves. But her happiness is not complete. She has returned just with her son; her husband died last year after diabetes forced the amputation of both his legs. Though he may never be counted as a war casualty, she is convinced that the walking he did on his bad legs during the family’s flight to Erbil contributed to his death.

Assyrian Priest Paints Grim Picture After Visit to Iraq

By Assyrian International News Agency

Father Athanasis Toma, who lives in Los Angeles, returned recently from a trip to Iraq, his country of origin. Fr. Athanasis is an Assyrian, a chorbishop in the Ancient Church of the East, with a diocese in San Fernando, CA. Fr. Athanasis was happy to visit Iraq, but is gravely concerned over the developments in that country, particularly about the situation of Assyrians, the indigenous people of Iraq.

According to Father Athanasis, there are many challenges that Assyrians are facing in Iraq, including security, land seizures and Kurdish discrimination and marginalization of Assyrians in the north.

The following is an interview with Fr. Athanasis conducted by Sabri Atman, the director of the Assyrian Genocide Research Center, based in Sweden.

Can you tell us about your visit to Iraq?

This was my second visit to the homeland within six years since leaving the country 42 years ago. It was a short but very sad visit because of the conditions and the unfair treatment of our people back home.

Were you surprised about what you saw or you were already aware of the current situation?

Overall I had heard about the situation and seen some posting on social media, but being with the people on the ground, it gives more in depth about their life, and the issues they face on daily bases.

What kind of challenges are Assyrians facing today in Iraq?

Our people are facing many challenges. The security issue of their lands and the unfair treatment of our young generation, students have no hope of good opportunities after graduation. The confiscating of lands continues. The discrimination in prioritizing the fulfillment of our village's needs, which can be as simple electricity, water, water wells, and schools.

Do Assyrians still have hope in their home or they want to emigrate?

The message I got was is that people have lost hope and they are looking to emigrate to the west.

How is the Assyrian relationship with the Kurds and others?

As we know, Assyrians always want to live in peace but cautiously with their neighbors, regardless of their ethnicity. They respect their neighbors but they truly fear them also, since what happened to them in the recent years with ISIS.
Are the Kurds seizing the Assyrian land?

Indeed, they are slowly steeling lands, building homes in areas not belonging to them. In other words, confiscating Assyrian lands mostly in villages that are not heavily populated or occupied by Assyrians throughout the year.

Is the occupation of the Assyrian land inadvertent or is it a systematic policy by the Kurdish Regional Government?

In my view, it's a systematic policy. The reason being, you hear the Kurds saying to their Assyrian neighbors "why should I purchase your property, when I can get it for free once you leave." This means they are aware of what they are doing and they are applying all kind of pressure on our villages, so our people will abandon their homes

What is the expectation of the Assyrians living in their homeland from the Assyrians in the Diaspora, how can we help them?

They are truly depending on our people in the Diaspora to be their voice. I believe we owe to them by being more active and knocking on doors here in Washington and around the world.

Their cry and our effort so far have fallen on deaf ears. We must find a solution, a nation that cares about our case. But most of all, we need to stand united and tear down the walls that divide us as a nation. That will be the greatest help to them.

Is any humanitarian organization helping them?

Very few humanitarian organizations are left. Most of them have left the country.

Do you think as Assyrians and as Christians we have any future in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq?

It's a question that we need to be very honest with ourselves about. If we are not united and if conditions continue as they are, I believe we will diminish and soon not many will be left. Our lands, language, history and traditions will be all gone

Cross in Fire, oggetti e immagini della persecuzione anti-cristiana

By Vatican News

Emanuela Campanile

Statue o libri sacri e di preghiere, paramenti liturgici danneggiati, frammenti di pietre dalle chiese devastate, effetti personali di vittime innocenti. Sono alcuni degli oggetti esposti alla mostra Cross in Fire – La persecuzione dei Cristiani in Medio Oriente, allestita a Palazzo Cardinal Cesi in via della Conciliazione, a due passi da San Pietro.
L’obiettivo della mostra
Gli oggetti esposti alla mostra - aperta dall'8 al 12 ottobre - "possono considerarsi delle vere reliquie", spiega Bianka Speidl, curatrice della mostra. L'intento, tuttavia, non è quello di offrire immagini sconvolgenti quanto, piuttosto, "rafforzare la consapevolezza che le radici cristiane della civiltà occidentale sono in Medio Oriente" e che se venissero cancellate, "sarebbe una perdita senza pari per l’umanità intera". 
La persecuzione dei Cristiani
Numeri e percentuali possono aiutare a capire la portata della persecuzione contro i cristiani in Medio Oriente. In Siria, all’inizio del XX secolo un terzo della popolazione era cristiana. Nel 2011, si è registrata una diminuzione del 5-8%. Dall’inizio della guerra, si possono solo stimare i numeri dei cristiani rimasti nel Paese. Grave anche la situazione in Iraq dove da 1,5 milioni - dato del 2003 - i cristiani sono passati a 250 mila unità. Per quanto notevolmente più numerosa e vitale, in Egitto la comunità cristiana - 10 milioni di persone - è gravemente minacciata dagli attacchi terroristici.
La propaganda jihadista I jihadisti sostengono che i cristiani medio orientali siano discendenti dei crociati e agenti infiltrati dell’Occidente ‘ateo’ e ‘infedele’. L’obiettivo è estirpare la civiltà cristiana partendo quindi dalle sue radici: il Medio Oriente.
Il progetto di annientamento
La distruzione comprende anche l’eliminazione dei simboli religiosi e dei beni architettonici cristiani e precristiani. Tombe di santi, dipinti, chiese, conventi e altri luoghi santi o significativi della tradizione cristiana, sono stati rasi al suolo dagli jihadisti.

La volontà di rinascere
A causa di queste atrocità, la presenza dei cristiani potrebbe essere cancellata dal Medio Oriente. Per questo, è necessario che il mondo sia sempre più consapevole delle conseguenze di tale annientamento.
L'impegno del Governo ungherese
Fortunatamente, ci sono diverse iniziative che aiutano i cristiani a rimanere o a ritornare nella loro terra d’origine. In questo contesto, si inseriscono anche le politiche del Governo ungherese che nel 2016 ha istituito il Segretariato di Stato per l’Aiuto ai Cristiani Perseguitati per fornire aiuti umanitari, favorire la ricostruzione e lo sviluppo delle comunità colpite, ma anche sensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica internazionale. Inoltre, è stata creata una borsa di studio per i giovani cristiani del Medio Oriente, offrendo loro la possibilità di studiare nelle diverse università ungheresi.

Iraq Inches Toward Governance As Baghdad Christians Consider Fleeing

By International Christian Concern

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on October 2, 2018, Iraq's interim government took a positive step toward breaking months of deadlock by naming a new president and prime minister. However, negotiations remain underway regarding several other key government positions.

The government has struggled to form since the contested May election. This has contributed to a steep security decline, increasing the vulnerability of Iraq's Christians, especially in the capital city of Baghdad.

"The random murdering taking place over the years is increasing because we don't have government. The militias are in charge of the country," Nagham, a Baghdad Christian, told ICC.

"Academics started [this week] ... I am concerned about [my] 8-year-old son until he comes back from school. His father has to take him to school because we don't trust the school bus. If something bad happened, no one can help," she added. Her family wants to escape Baghdad because of the security situation, but cannot afford losing her husband's income.

This is a common theme for Baghdad's Christians. If they stay, they face an increased risk of violence. If they leave, they lose a source of income that was difficult to obtain because of job discrimination against Christians.

"Life in Baghdad is crazy, I [have] never seen anything similar before!" said Sigar, a trader who has lived in Baghdad most of his life, but is originally from the Nineveh Plains.

He added, "Muslims earn monthly an imaginary amount of money... They live in houses [where the] price exceeds $500,000, but the family is destroyed. I think the community [is] destroyed and it is not possible to rebuild it again... Unfortunately, whoever is able to leave will not delay his leaving."

Historically, Baghdad's Christians have often relocated to the Nineveh Plains when violence plagued the country's capital. However, ISIS's destruction of the Nineveh Plains has removed that option for many, including Sigar. "It is risky [for us] to stay here," he told ICC. "[But] trading is what we are used to [doing], we cannot change it now... changing is impossible."

Suha, a local teacher, agrees that the situation in Baghdad has put the local Christians in an ever worsening situation. "Our being in Baghdad is dangerous. I agree we are not safe," Suha told ICC. "The worst personalities have the high positions at the government and that's why we are in danger. The murder of Tara Fares at one of the most crowded areas in Baghdad is more than a murder, it is a message that we got very well. It is a message of threatening that we (the militias) can do whatever wherever we want."

This past September, four high-profile Iraqi women, including Tara Fares, were the victims of targeted assassinations. Fares has family belonging to the Christian community and her murder is reminiscent of the type of violence that Christians experienced from 2003 to 2006.

Claire Evans, ICC's Regional Manager, said, "All of Iraq is suffering the consequences of an absent government, religious minorities the most of all. Without the protection of law, there is no one to stand by the side of Christians when they are the victims of violence and discrimination. As they watch the country's situation deteriorate, they are increasingly left to wonder how they can survive when their options were already severely limited. We must keep Iraq's Christians, especially those in current hot zones such as Baghdad, in our prayers."

Iraq, tanti cristiani sono tornati. Mons. Alberto Ortega, Nunzio in Iraq

By Stand Together

Anglican school in Iraq opens next to St. George’s Church in Baghdad

By Anglican Communion News Service

 

The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Cardinal-Patriarch Louis-Raphael I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon, joined other ecumenical guests and VIPs at the official opening of a new Anglican school in Baghdad. The Anglican School of the Redeemer – al-Fadi – was officially opened on Saturday (29 September) by the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, Michael Lewis. The bishop also opened a newly re-sited and refurbished Hope Resource Centre.

The new school will enable St George’s Church in Baghdad to offer primary-level education to children after they have completed their time at the existing Redeemer Kindergarten. It has been planned for a number of years.

Like the Kindergarten, the Primary School will serve all the local community. Some 90 per cent of the Kindergarten’s 150 children are from Muslim families. “The parents greatly value the safe environment of learning, the subjects offered in the school, including simple things of behaviour and values”, the Anglican Chaplain in Baghdad, Father Faiz Jerjees, said in February 2017. “Children are able to relate what they learn in school to everyday life experience, and the parents are very happy to see the positive development of their children.”

Speaking earlier this year in a video by the NGO Stand With Iraqi Christians, Father Faiz said the school was focused on “not just language, not just to teach them Arabic or English; but we want to also [teach] them how to live together, how they can learn together, eat together and love each other. This is very important for the future in Iraq.”

Discovering Mother Mary in northern Iraq after ISIS

By America Magazine (The Jesuit Review)
Kevin Clarke

A giant industrial generator rages behind her—the power is out again and noisy generators on street corners around the district are roaring into action—but Maryamana, “Mother Mary,” gazes serenely down on the traffic fuming and stalling around her in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil.
Travelers visiting Iraqi Kurdistan for the first time may be surprised by the giant statue of the Virgin Mary at this busy square not far from the U.S. consulate, but Erbil is known for its ethnic and religious diversity, and Ankawa is a largely Christian community.

The Diocese of Erbil is building another Maryamana just down the road. This one is the Maryamana Hospital, a 90-bed facility with every modern medical capacity imaginable; it is scheduled to open in the new year. The property had been a near-completed shopping mall before its resurrection as a hospital. Abandoned by financiers during the region’s ongoing economic crisis, it was adopted by hundreds of families who had fled Mosul or Christian communities nearby during the ISIS onslaught in June 2014. The families squatted here until they found alternative housing, fled Iraq completely or—for an increasing number of Christian families over the last year—had the opportunity to return to their former homes. The hospital’s promoters hope it will be a beacon of mercy and hope for Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities of northern Iraq now that large-scale combat against ISIS appears at an end.

Another prominent structure just down the street from the statue of Maryamana is St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Its compound, which includes the residence of Erbil’s Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda, has turned over a yard inside to straggly grape vines that may one day be changed into wine. It is small evidence of a normalcy that is struggling to return since Daesh, as ISIS militants are known here, were obliterated by Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. forces or driven from the region (or, as many worry, became “shaved beards” and melted back into the community).

Just months ago these same grounds were crowded with thousands who had fled from Daesh into the bishop’s care with just the clothes on their backs.

Scores of families who now live scattered across Ankawa can tell the same story as Maryam, 22, and her sister Wasan, 18. After days of rumors of Daesh mayhem and the sound of gunfire and explosions approaching, they fled with their siblings and parents on June 10, 2014, minutes ahead of Daesh but not before they were beaten out of the city by escaping police and Iraqi security forces.

Maryam remembers watching the soldiers strip off their uniforms as they made their escape ahead of the terrified Christian families of Mosul. They knew that the road to Erbil was being cut off by the Peshmerga, the Kurdish defense force, so Maryam and her family fled toward Dohuk. A trip that normally took one hour became a 22-hour ordeal for the family—trapped in a giant traffic jam of terrified Mosul residents even as the sound of gunfire grew closer.

After surviving on the kindness of friends in Dohuk, the family went to Jordan hoping to find an option for refugee resettlement in Europe or America. Nine months later they returned in frustration to Iraq, this time to Erbil. Now the sisters attend the Catholic University in Erbil, which opened in 2017. They hope to prepare themselves there for whatever the future might bring.

Though their home miraculously survived ISIS occupation and then a massively destructive offensive to drive the militants out of Mosul, it was pockmarked with bullet holes and stripped of every belonging and fixture. But it is not their childhood home’s structural state that keeps them away from Mosul. Their father, Yusif, has little confidence in the family’s future in Erbil, but he insists that he and his children will never go back to Mosul.

“How can we live with them again?” Maryam asks of former neighbors who welcomed ISIS even as they and the other Christian families fled in terror. How can they accept the neighbor who joined ISIS and contacted them while they lived in Dohuk, urging them to return but only after converting to Islam?

“Of course it is very hard” to trust their Muslim neighbors again, she says. “My father lived his whole life with them, talking with them, working with them, and just like that, that is how they treat us?”

Can they ever be sure that a night like June 10, 2014, will never happen again? “No, I don’t think so,” Maryam says, her bright smile dissolving. “I don’t think that trust can ever be restored.”

Yusif is ready to leave Iraq behind forever if another nation accepts him and his family. How can the world stand by and do nothing to help them, he asks. He does not understand this silence before the massive groan of Christian suffering in Iraq.

The night before, two young men of Erbil shared their own experience of living as members of a Christian minority in Iraq. One, Ramin, had fled with his family from Kirkuk even before ISIS attacked, after death threats from his Muslim neighbors. The other, Alin, says life even in an Iraqi city more at home with diversity like Erbil can be filled with obstacles and petty indignities to members of a minority faith.

Yet these two say they plan to stay in Erbil and see what the future will bring, to try to build lives here. Their resistance to leaving is partly practical—they recognize the increasing obstacles to legal asylum in Europe and the United States and simply do not want to start all over elsewhere—and partly emotional and spiritual.

“This is where my family is; this is where my friends are; this is where my church is,” says Alin. “We [Assyrian Christians] are the indigenous people of this land. We built this civilization, we built this country.” He intends to stay, though he knows the odds are against him. Does he hold out any hope for Christians in Iraq?

“No, I don’t believe in the future,” he says. “I just accept the challenges I will have in the future.”

And children in the future? They are too young for that, Ramin and Alin say. And who could think of such in Iraq the way it is today? None of their recently married friends, at least the ones who haven’t left the country, are thinking about having children, they say.

Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Christian population, already significantly diminished by years of economic sanctions that pushed the well-off and educated out of Iraq, had been reduced to perhaps 1.5 million people. After years of Daesh terror and the devastating response to it by coalition forces, the number of Christians in the entire nation is by even the most optimistic estimates no more than 250,000 to 300,000. There may be as few as 150,000 left.

Yet backed by the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee and the vision and energy of the omnipresent Archbishop Warda, many in and around Erbil and Mosul are struggling to reverse the flight of the world’s oldest Christian communities. The hospital, new apartments for young married couples, shops for new businesses and jobs for Erbil’s well-educated and restless youth are part of the diocese’s vigorous efforts to rebuild Christian villages and communities and ultimately a Christian presence and identity in Iraq. This week I will be visiting some of the places where that restoration is happening in Nineveh and northern Iraq, hearing the stories and considering the obstacles and prospects for success of this historic reconstruction effort.

“It is one thing to rebuild a house,” says a priest at work among displaced people here in Erbil, “and we need to do it.

“But it is another thing to rebuild trust.”

Iraq, il curdo Barham Salih è il nuovo presidente. Chiesa caldea: Moderato, garante di unità

By Asia News

Con l’invito “a servire tutti gli irakeni” e costruire “uno Stato civile forte” e capace di “affrontare le numerose sfide”, il patriarca caldeo card. Louis Raphael Sako ha “accolto con grande piacere” l’elezione del leader moderato curdo Barham Salih a presidente dell’Iraq. Nel messaggio rivolto al neo capo di Stato, e inviato per conoscenza ad AsiaNews, il porporato auspica un grande impegno “verso una vera riconciliazione” all’interno delle istituzioni e nel Paese, mettendo da parte “controversie e tensioni”.

La nomina di Salih è giunta ieri al termine di una seduta parlamentare che ha decretato il successo del candidato dell’Unione patriottica del Kurdistan (Puk), che ha sbaragliato la concorrenza del principale rivale del Partito democratico del Kurdistan (Kdp). Egli ha ottenuto 219 voti favorevoli contro i 22 appannaggio di Fuad Hussein. A conclusione del giuramento, il neo presidente ha promesso di “salvaguardare l’unità e la sicurezza dell’Iraq”. 

Dalla caduta del regime di Saddam Hussein la carica di capo dello Stato è assegnata per consuetudine a un leader curdo e ha una valenza più onorifica e cerimoniale, che politica. Al presidente della Repubblica spetta, entro 15 giorni dall’elezione, il compito di nominare un premier incaricato per la formazione del nuovo governo.

Tuttavia, a poche ore dal voto Salih ha già affidato l’incarico ad Adel Abdul Mahdi, ex ministro dell’Interno e del Petrolio, considerato dagli esperti un premier di compromesso ben visto sia da Stato Uniti che dall’Iran. Il suo nome era stato segnalato nei mesi scorsi dal leader radicale sciita Moqtada al-Sadr, la cui coalizione era uscita vincitrice - ma senza la maggioranza assoluta - dalle elezioni politiche del maggio scorso.

Il 58enne politico curdo Barham Salih è considerato un moderato e, in passato, ha ricoperto la carica di Primo Ministro della regione autonoma del Kurdistan. Alle spalle studi di ingegneria in Gran Bretagna e costretto all’esilio ai tempi di Saddam Hussein, egli ha militato per quasi tutta la carriera politica fra le fila dell’Unione patriottica Puk.

Sulla scelta del capo di Stato si sono registrate nelle scorse settimane tensioni e contrasti fra i due più importanti partiti curdi, il Puk e il Kdp di Massound Barzani, specchio delle profonde divisioni che caratterizzano la comunità curda e che sono divampate in tutta la loro portata lo scorso anno nel referendum per l'indipendenza. Al neo capo di Stato il compito di rincoliare i curdi al loro interno e nel tessuto socio-politico del Paese.  

Per l’ausiliare di Baghdad e braccio destro del patriarca Sako mons. Basilio Yaldo la scelta di Salih è elemento di “speranza” perché si tratta di un “politico di lungo corso, sebbene di giovane età per le cariche ricoperte, è capace ed equilibrato”. Interpellato da AsiaNews il prelato lo descrive come una figura “moderata e garante di unità”, un elemento fondamentale sul quale basare la rinascita del Paese. E come il patriarca Sako, aggiunge, anche il neo presidente “insiste molto sull’elemento della cittadinanza, e non della fede religiosa o dell’etnia, come elemento fondante della nazione e della società irakena”. 

Salih ha fatto parte del governo ad interim dopo la caduta di Saddam e ha ricoperto la carica di vice Primo Ministro ai tempi del governo di Nouri Maliki, ricorda mons. Yaldo. “Sarà un buon presidente - conclude il prelato - perché ha grande esperienza ed è conosciuto e apprezzato a livello internazionale. Con lui abbiamo instaurato buoni rapporti e nutre un grande affetto personale verso di noi e il patriarca Sako”.

Monaci e volontari cristiani al servizio di tutti: curdi e profughi, senza distinzione di fede o gruppo etnico

By Fides

A Sulaymaniyya, nel Kurdistan iracheno, attualmente non vi sono tensioni, ma l’emergenza profughi e rifugiati, causata dalla guerra contro l’Isis e dall’instabilità interna all’Iraq, non è terminata. È il quadro tracciato in un colloquio con l’Agenzia Fides da p. Jens Petzold, religioso di Mar Musa (la comunità fondata dal Gesuita padre Paolo Dall’Oglio, scomparso in Siria), da anni in Kurdistan. “Per tre anni – osserva padre Jens – abbiamo ospitato nella nostra comunità a Sulaymaniyya i profughi cristiani fuggiti di fronte all’avanzata dei miliziani dello Stato islamico. Nel periodo più critico dormivano, mangiavano e vivevano con noi 250 uomini, donne e bambini. Un’emergenza alla quale abbiamo risposto grazie agli aiuti internazionali e al nostro impegno personale. A settembre gli ultimi profughi hanno lasciato la nostra comunità e sono tornati a casa. La maggior parte di essi proveniva da Qaraqosh”.
Il Kurdistan è arrivato ad accogliere 1.700.000 tra sfollati interni e rifugiati. Nella sola zona di Sulaymaniyya ne erano presenti 200mila (tra i quali cinquemila cristiani). “L’emergenza non è terminata” continua padre Jens. “Molti musulmani sunniti non possono e non vogliono rientrare nelle loro terre di origine per paura di rappresaglie sciite. Poi abbiamo anche numerosi rifugiati siriani (in buona parte curdi) che non se la sentono di tornare in patria, temendo insicurezza e precarietà”.
Di fronte a questa emergenza, padre Jens e i numerosi volontari che si alternano nella sua comunità sono impegnati in diversi progetti. Il più importante è la scuola di lingue (curdo, inglese e arabo) cui si affiancano le attività teatrali. “Stiamo pensando – spiega il religioso – di creare una scuola popolare. E, a fianco dei corsi di lingua, inserire altri insegnamenti: storia, filosofia, letteratura. Vogliamo offrire e offriamo queste attività a tutti: curdi, profughi, rifugiati. Non facciamo distinzione di fede né di appartenenza etnica”. Padre Jens e i volontari lavorano anche a Kanakawa, un villaggio yazida non lontano da Sulaymaniyya, dove tengono corsi di lingue e alfabetizzazione.
“Noi – conclude il religioso – ci rivolgiamo ai giovani perché se è vero che la guerra è terminata e il Kurdistan è abbastanza stabile (Sulaymaniyya è una città tranquilla ora), è anche vero che l’economia langue. Dobbiamo aiutare i giovani a crearsi competenze utili da spendere nel mondo del lavoro. L’obiettivo è creare un’economia più strutturata e meno dipendente dal settore statale nel quale ora è impiegata la maggior parte dei lavoratori”.

IRAQ: Political change could persuade Christians to stay

By Aid to the Church in Need (UK)
Daniele Piccini

On the eve of the general election in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish Region, the head of one of the country's biggest Christian Churches expressed his hope that political change will encourage Christians stay in Iraq. Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako, head of the Chaldean Church, spoke to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need about the elections scheduled for Sunday 30 September.

He said: "From this election we expect a positive political change. Cooperation between central Iraqi Government and authorities of Kurdistan is very important. If it works, the whole country works. If it does not work, many complications arise." Of particular concern to the patriarch are the up to 20,000 Christian families driven out of their villages by Daesh (ISIS) in August 2014 who sought shelter in the Kurdish region's capital Erbil. Having lived in refugees camps since they were displaced, more than 8,900 families have now returned to their houses.

Patriarch Sako said: "We hope that a positive result from the election in Kurdistan can persuade many other Christians to stay in Iraq. I think it is a very difficult challenge because many of them left Iraq and are living now in western countries. Their children go to school and they are progressively integrating in the society. Even if the parents would like to return, they probably won't because of the future of their children. I think, it would be a good result, if we persuade Iraqi Christians, who are still living in Iraq as 'internal refugees', not to leave. For this purpose, we need to rebuild as soon as possible destroyed houses, schools, churches and infrastructures."

The patriarch added that ongoing conflicts between political parties do not help resolve to these issues. "Conflicts between Kurds and Arabs, who want to occupy the Nineveh Plains, do not encourage Iraqi Christians to stay" he said. "The road from Badnaya and Teleskuf, for example, is closed; we have money to rebuild the houses there, but families cannot get in." Patriarch Sako, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis on 29 June this year, described what Iraq's Christians hope to see from the elections. He said: "We need more employment opportunities for our young people. We need further help to rebuild the villages in the Nineveh Plains, destroyed by Daesh (ISIS). We need the government to increase and improve its services. Finally, we want to put an end to militia and corruption. We want to build together a democratic Iraq and to strengthen peaceful coexistence. We do have hope because things are just changing in Iraq."

Patriarch Sako concluded: "We have to face many challenges and we expect that the new central government and the election in Kurdistan will bring positive solutions. Otherwise, people will lose hope and trust. This must not happen."

Libertà religiosa diritto inalienabile. Intervento dell’arcivescovo Gallagher all’Onu

By L'Osservatore Romano

La libertà religiosa e di culto è un diritto essenziale e inalienabile che spetta in primo luogo ai governi e alle autorità religiose difendere. Questo il punto nodale dell’intervento tenuto dal segretario per i Rapporti con gli Stati, l’arcivescovo Paul Richard Gallagher, ieri, nel corso di un evento dedicato alla libertà religiosa e alle persecuzioni delle minoranze cristiane tenutosi a margine della settantatreesima Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite a New York.

«È un fatto storico indiscutibile — ha spiegato l’arcivescovo Gallagher — che gli inizi della cristianità siano stati in Medio oriente. Tuttavia, la dura verità è che le vecchie comunità cristiane stanno avendo problemi nella regione della nascita della cristianità. La popolazione cristiana in Medio oriente è calata drammaticamente in questi ultimi anni e, in alcuni luoghi, potrebbe non sopravvivere indipendentemente da quanto profonde siano le sue radici».

Un punto essenziale dell’intervento dell’arcivescovo Gallagher è stato il rapporto tra cristiani e musulmani. «I cristiani hanno sempre convissuto con i musulmani e sono stati parte del tessuto sociale del Medio oriente. Tale evidente fatto serve per ricordare al mondo ancora una volta che i cristiani hanno tutto il diritto a vivere in pace e libertà. Infatti, per due millenni, le comunità cristiane in Medio oriente hanno attivamente contribuito alle loro rispettive società. Esse erano di grande aiuto nella protezione e nella promozione delle antiche culture nella regione». Ad esempio — ha ricordato l’arcivescovo — «la comunità siriaca ancora parla e prega in aramaico, la lingua di Gesù. La diaspora cristiana dal Medio oriente ha diffuso la sua cultura in tutto il mondo». Per un lungo periodo nella storia «cristiani e musulmani hanno vissuto in pace gli uni accanto agli altri, nonostante sporadici casi di violenza basati su una manipolazione politica della religione o dell’appartenenza etnica». Ciò nonostante, ha spiegato il segretario per i Rapporti con gli Stati, «nelle ultime decadi qualcosa ha distrutto questa relativamente armoniosa coesistenza». I cristiani e le altre minoranze religiose ed etniche in Medio oriente «hanno sofferto difficoltà, pressioni, discriminazione e perfino persecuzioni mortali».

Si tratta di un fatto gravissimo, che non è soltanto una questione religiosa, «ma un problema di diritti umani fondamentali». I crimini compiuti contro le minoranze religiose chiedono soprattutto una risposta sul piano pubblico, da parte delle autorità locali. «”Protezione” è una basilare responsabilità degli stati verso tutti i suoi cittadini indipendentemente dalla razza, dalla religione e dall’appartenenza etnica». Ma non solo: l’arcivescovo ha sottolineato anche il ruolo dei leader religiosi in questo processo, richiamando la «seria e specifica responsabilità dei leader religiosi nel combattere e nel condannare l’abuso della credenza e del sentimento religiosi nel giustificare il terrorismo e la violenza contro i credenti delle altre religioni».

Holy See Press Office

Intervention by the Secretary for Relations with States at the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on “Freedom from Persecution: Christian Religious Minorities, Religious Pluralism in Danger, 29.09.2018