Rome (Fides Service) - Two interesting initiatives undertaken by the Dominicans to promote peace in Iraq and support for war worn people in the Holy Land were illustrated by Fr Carlos Azpiroz Costa Master General of the Order in his address to Pope John Paul II after the Ash Wednesday on 5 March Mass presided by the Holy Father in the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome, entrusted to the care of the Dominican Fathers. The first initiative is a campaign to distribute a pin with the words "I have family in Iraq" to demonstrate solidarity with the people in Iraq including 300 Sisters, 8 priests and about 500 lay Dominicans. In view of the threat of a military attack on Iraq on the part of the United States, last September five American Dominicans, two priests, two Sisters and a lay Franciscan woman took a public stance for peace keeping a month long fast in the centre of New York with the motto "there must be another way" to show their objection to the use of armed force to solve situations of conflict. At the end of the fast a Liturgy of the Word was celebrated in the gardens of the United Nations Organisation headquarters during which the Dominicans distributed pins with the words "I have family in Iraq", a campaign which, thanks to Dominicans world wide, has since spread to many other countries.
The second initiative is a campaign to promote the sale of "Olive wood Rosaries made in the Holy Land" in support of the impoverished Christians in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Rosaries made and sold to pilgrims are a major source of income for Christians in the Holy Land but the present situation of the war has seriously affected tourism and reducing considerably the number of pilgrimages. Dominicans in the Holy Land collect the rosaries made of beautiful local olive wood and through their confreres all over the world they sell them and then the proceeds go directly to the families who made them. For many Palestinian Christians living in the Holy Land in a perennial state of war this is the only source of income. RZ (Fides Service 12/3/2003 EM lines 29 Words: 379)