Baghdad (Fides Service) - As in every difficult moment in history the people of Iraq turn their eyes to Our Lady to implore her intercession to obtain help from God, certain that the Mother of God will not leave her children without help. In this spirit the Bishops of Iraq consecrated the country to Mary Queen of Peace. The solemn celebration took place in the Chaldean Cathedral dedicated to Saint Joseph on March 21, the day after the first bombing attacks. The representatives of the different rites gathered around a statue of Mary which had previously travelled around the country attracting great crowds of faithful who entrusted themselves to the Virgin Mary, mediatrix of graces. This initiative had a vast echo all over the world involving in prayer faithful on all five continents.
Present for the entrustment service in Baghdad were auxiliary Bishops of the Chaldean Patriarchate Shlemon Warduni and Emmanuel Karim-Delly; Archbishop Jean Benjamin Sleiman, of the Latin Church of Baghdad; Bishop Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka, of the Syrian Catholic Church; Bishop Paul Coussa, for the Armenian Catholic Church, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Saveirus Jamil Hawa; Assyrian Archbishop Ghevargese Warda Daniel Siliwa.
An immense crowd gathered in the cathedral to pray to Our Lady for protection, trusting in the Heavenly Mother's love for humanity. The faithful asked the Blessed Mother to intercede to God to grant the gift of peace to Iraq and to the whole world.
The statue of Our Lady is called the Pilgrim Mother because it travels around the country. This initiative was first started in France in 1995 and it has been adopted all over the world with some 8,000 statues and icons of Our Lady in 120 different countries.
In Iraq the week before the US led military strike began, the statue was taken to a number of churches in Baghdad, Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian, drawing large praying crowds of Christians and also Muslims.
In the meantime Catholics in many parts of the world are joining a prayer movement to be in spiritual communion with the Christians of Iraq and to ask Our Lady to protect all the suffering Iraqi people. Already 1,000 Catholic communities have joined the initiative launching a vast campaign of Rosaries and other prayers for peace. PA (Fides Service 27/3/2003 EM lines 22 Words: 298)