Statement from Bishop Declan Lang, Clifton, Chairman, International Affairs -Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales: * * * I invite you to join with many people from across Iraq in praying for an end to the violent persecution that threatens to extinguish the ancient Iraqi Christian community. Church leaders in Iraq selected Sunday August 9 as Day of Prayer. Events in Iraq over the past few weeks have been disastrous. Christians have been systematically driven out of Mosul. A community of 60,000 before 2003 has dwindled over the years and is now down to almost nothing. For the first time in 1,600 years, no Masses are being celebrated in Mosul. Many Christians have fled to the surrounding Nineveh Plains and into Kurdistan as militants from the Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State of the Levant (ISIS), threaten those who do not subscribe to their fundamentalist ideology. We are witnessing today an act of religious and ethnic cleansing toward Christians & many other communities -Sufis, Shabaks, Mandaeans, Yazidis, Turkmen, let alone Shi’is & Sunnis, as extremists drive people out of the lands that have been their home for thousands of years; some churches have been converted into mosques, ancient monasteries lie abandoned and the homes of Christians have been daubed with signs that would mark them out as a target for the extremists. I call on our government and those of other states to prioritise action to save the Christian & other persecuted communities of Iraq & offer them the help & support they need urgently. I invite you to support Aid to the Church in Need as well as all other Catholic charities offering emergency & pastoral support to Iraqis at a time of great crisis. Most important: Pray that God may show the people of Iraq his infinite mercy - comfort mourners, bind up their wounds & heal the broken-hearted in those biblical lands that have been a cradle of civilization.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 19:00:10 +0000
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