{"id":912,"date":"2009-02-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-01T20:26:50","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T20:26:50","slug":"iraqi-bishops-in-rome-dont-forget-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/iraqi-bishops-in-rome-dont-forget-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Bishops in Rome: Don’t Forget Us"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n

Mideast Prelates Lament Media Silence<\/P><\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n

ROME, JAN. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There is a “deafening silence” in the international community about the<\/P>
\n

plight of Iraqi Christians, attest prelates from the wartorn country.<\/P>
\n

The bishops, in Rome for their five-yearly meeting with the Pope, spoke with Vatican Radio about the<\/P>
\n

situation their flocks are facing back home and they appealed to the world not to forget.<\/P>
\n

Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk and Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Babylon spoke about<\/P>
\n

the deafening silence regarding the situation of Iraqi Christians and lamented that they were powerless to stop<\/P>
\n

the mass exodus of Christians from the country.<\/P>
\n

Before 2003, there were 800,000 Christians in an Iraqi population of 25 million. But in the last five years, the<\/P>
\n

conditions of life and anti-Christian violence have forced half of the Christian population to leave their homes.<\/P>
\n

The Iraqi bishops said their outcry over the situation has only been reported by the media in the last few<\/P>
\n

months. Now, they said, public opinion and the international community are responding to create security and<\/P>
\n

thousands of Iraqis are returning.<\/P>
\n

Lending a hand<\/P>
\n

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka of Baghdad said the situation is such that one<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

presumes there is “a plan to make Christians leave the Middle East.”<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

And Archbishop Sako said he wanted to ask the Holy Father about preparing a special synod for the Church in<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

Iraq: “We have great need of the Pope’s help. Thanks to his continual pleas the international media have<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

begun to talk about the Iraqi cause.”<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

“We are not in a position,” he continued, “to plan and project the future of Iraq. The Holy See could certainly<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

give us a hand and support.<\/STRONG><\/P>
\n

“We must give answers to [Iraqi Christians] that will keep fear from winning out. We need others.<\/STRONG> In Iraq<\/P>
\n

there needs to be a democracy that is adapted to a country that has never had one. We have been waiting for it<\/P>
\n

for 35 years.”<\/P>
\n

“Democracy requires education and cannot be forced,” Bishop Warduni added.<\/P>
\n

Leaving a mess<\/P>
\n

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul contended that after the arrival of American<\/P>
\n

troops, the country’s problems “increased a hundredfold.”<\/P>
\n

“But,” he said, “the Americans are not the problem […] The real problem of the different communities in Iraq<\/P>
\n

is the negation of the other.”<\/P>
\n

Archbishop Sako added: “We feel a little isolated, forgotten, unfortunately. The Christians have left the<\/P>
\n

country and the others, who have stayed, wait without much hope in the future. They live with worries about<\/P>
\n

their children, for their future, for their houses, for their jobs.”<\/P>
\n

In regard to the change that the new American president, Barack Obama, could bring, the prelate observed<\/P>
\n

that “politics does not depend on one person. If he decides to pull the soldiers out, then there will be a mess.<\/P>
\n

Perhaps there will be a civil war. We do not have enough soldiers and police to control a country of 25 million<\/P>
\n

people.”<\/P>
\n

TRIBUNUS<\/FONT><\/P><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mideast Prelates Lament Media Silence ROME, JAN. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There is a “deafening silence” in the international community about the plight of Iraqi Christians, attest prelates from the wartorn country. The bishops, in Rome for their five-yearly meeting with the Pope, spoke with Vatican Radio about the situation their flocks are facing back home …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}