Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kerkuk (Fides Service) - It will be a Christmas of prayer for Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Kerkuk. There will be no public festivities among Chaldean Catholics concerned for increasing fundamental violence and a constant exodus of Christians in search of safety from violence a grief, Chaldean Archbishop Luis Sako of Kerkuk told Fides and he presented a Message on behalf of Christian leaders in the area.
“We are praying and preparing to commemorate the Birth of our Lord and we hope it will be a Christmas of peace but our community is still suffering and no one feels like celebrating. Because many of our families have lost members in attacks by fundamentalists on churches in Mosul and Bagdad we have decided not to organise the usual festivities but simply to pray all through Christmas for peace in our land. This is also an act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters who had to forego the usual parties to mark the al-Fitr, feast at the end of Ramadan”.
On behalf of Christian leaders in Kerkuk, the Archbishop writes: “Today in Iraq the situation is painful and everyone knows why. All around us we see death and destruction and we know that while accepting our history of suffering we must do all we can to put an end to this situation. Priority must be given to peace in Iraq and unity of the people. We must unite. Together Arabs, Turks, Christians, Muslims, other believers, must dialogue and reject this violence which brings the country only death and ruin. The time has come to dialogue, to shoulder our human responsibility to guarantee the nation a future of peace, justice and fraternity”.
“We Christian leaders of Kerkuk realise our responsibility to co-operate in harmony for the good of our country. We are impartial, we want peace and charity for all. We deplore the attacks on mosques in Falluja, Najaf and Mosul as well as those on churches in Baghdad and Mosul. We reaffirm our condemnation of profanation of holy places of any religion”.
The message speaks of the situation of Christians: “The problems of Iraq will not be solved with bombs in churches and intimidation of our people. We Christians have had many victims in the war, we have made sacrifices like our brother and sister Iraqis: violent forces anxious to chase Christians from the country, are not working for the good of Iraq”.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 13/12/2004 righe 34 parole 343)
