''Something Should Be Done to Save This People'' - Patriarch Sako


Torch of The Faith News on Sunday 10 August 2014 - 21:32:10 | by admin

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We have just viewed some extremely traumatic photographs on the Catholic Online website. The site claims that the images show Christian victims of the Islamic State 'IS' (formerly known as ISIS). The images are so distressing that we will only post the one above. This is said to be of men who were given the choice to convert to Islam or die.

Caution: the content of the following two paragraphs is very distressing. Although we are not showing the images, we think it necessary to highlight what is happening to Christians in Iraq. This is especially important because the mainstream media is largely ignoring the plight of Christians in the overall picture. Even Church leaders seem unaware of the full gravity of this situation. What else could explain their limited response? The pictures that we have seen are sickening. They purport to show Christian women who have been murdered. There is also a disgusting image of a woman being forcibly bled to death from a throat wound. Another horrific picture shows a beautiful little child in a knitted hat with three rifles pointing into the child's face. Catholic Online believes that this was taken just prior to the poor baby being murdered. There are also shocking images of men who have been beheaded and crucified. 

These types of anti-Christian killing are certainly occuring on a wide scale in Iraq. Due to the need to care for elderly relatives, the sick and very small children, not everyone was able to flee from ISIS in the captured areas. Mark Arabo, a Chaldean-American businessman told CNN news on Friday, that Christian children were beheaded in Mosul and had their heads stuck on poles in the park. Andrew White, the Anglican vicar of Bagdhad, said that a child he had baptized several years ago had recently been cut in half by ISIS militants. He has seen other things that are so bad that he will not speak of them. Survivors of the Islamist raids speak of Christian men being murdered and Christian women being raped.

Chaldean Catholic Fr. Paolo Thabit Mekko, of Qaraqosh, had been helping Christian refugees from Mosul to access electricity and clean water. On Thursday night, the Kurdish defenders of Qaraqosh withdrew and he had to flee from the Islamists with tens of thousands of Christians. He has told Vatican Insider that 'a river of terrorized people' had to leave everything they owned and escape to Kurdistan in cars, buses and even carts. He said that members of the IS Caliphate would be robbing the empty homes as they had in Mosul.

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Louis Raphael Sako, has issued another urgent statement. He says that there are 70,000 displaced Christians in Erbil and 60,000 in Dohuk. In Mosul and the areas bordering the Kurdistan region: 'the churches are deserted and desecrated; five bishops are out of their bishoprics; the priests and nuns left their missions and institutions leaving everything behind; the families have fled with their children abandoning everything else! This level of disaster is extreme.'

Patriarch Sako notes that the humanitarian situation of the refugees is getting rapidly worse in terms of food, water, medicine and shelter. He laments the lack of organized planning for the future housing, employment and educational needs of the displaced people. He is also concerned that the US military intervention does not demonstrate any strategy to dry up the manpower and fuel resources of the Islamists. It also leaves little hope for the liberation of Mosul and the Ninevah Plain. 

The mainstream media in the UK has largely overlooked the plight of the Christians in Iraq. Whilst it is good that the terror and thirst being suffered by the Yazidi families on Mount Sinjar has been highlighted - around 15 people each day are dying of thirst there whilst trying to avoid brutal execution or forced conversion - the suffering of Christians is mentioned only in passing. There has been little if any engagement with the fact that an anti-Christian genocide has been taking place in the invaded areas. Neither has there been any discussion of the desecration of Christian churches and monasteries. 

The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has spoken of the situation in his Sunday Angelus in Rome. He has also sent monies to Iraq. Tomorrow Cardinal Fernando Filoni will depart for Iraq as a special papal envoy. Most Catholic parishes in England and Wales were meant to be offering a bidding prayer for the situation during Sunday Masses today.

However, we must consider the fact that Islamists are slaughtering and raping Catholics, other Christians and members of other religions on a huge scale. Indeed, the Chaldean Catholic Church, which has ancient roots dating to the first centuries after the Incarnation, is being expunged from the map. At least 130,000 Christians, mainly Chaldean Catholics, have been displaced and forced to flee for their lives, losing their churches, homes, jobs and all their property. In fact, some estimates suggest that around 150,000 people were displaced from the Christian city of Qaraqosh alone. Can we really believe that enough is being done? If you had seen the pictures which we viewed earlier, then you could not believe that to be so. The Christians of Iraq need much more practical help and prayer. 

We conclude with the final words of Patriach Sako, which formed the title to this article: 'Something should be done to save this people that have their history in this land from their beginnings.' Let us beg the Lord for our suffering Christian brothers and sisters.     


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