Baghdad (Fides Service) - "These are days of suffering, with a great and heavy cross, but they are also days of happiness and rejoicing" says Syrian Fr Nizar Semaan in Ninive diocese expressing the feelings of Christians in Iraq this Easter, the first after the fall of the regime. "We can truly say that the Iraqi people have lived through Friday of Passion to Sunday of Resurrection. But for their joy in the resurrection to be complete Iraqis still need help and our support. I say to all who are preparing for a new Iraq, Americans and Iraqis, not to forget that the country has enormous human resources on which to found the new nation. I wish to remind you in this regard of the Christian minority which can be a nucleus of an authentic democracy in a country at last at peace. I feel I can say this for various reasons: many of the younger Iraqi Christians (aged 25-45) are well educated, they have university degrees; moreover their Christian faith, lived with profound intensity, carries with it the values of democracy and peace".
"Democracy is an indispensable element for Iraqi Christians to remain in the country" Fr Nizar adds. "In fact these Christians love their country. Even those who have left want to return as soon as possible to the land of their fathers and continue to bear witness to the Gospel, even amidst many difficulties. I would ask the Christians of the world to remember their brothers and sisters in Iraq and I hope that every parish will pray for them" LM (Fides Service 23/4/2003 EM lines 16 Words: 271)