SPECIAL REPORT Carlos
Azpiroz Costa Implores Pontiff to Speak Out In a letter prepared May 24th, fr. Carlos expressed his "grave concern" for the "security, and the future, of our Dominican Family members and the entire Christian community in Iraq." He asked the pope to intercede directly with President Bush on behalf of those threatened with violence and who are being killed, kidnapped and terrorized. He said in the letter "I am writing
to ask for your personal intervention and that of the Holy See
on the Government of Iraq, the United Nations, the coalition
armies and militant factions there to assure the protection of
Iraq’s ancient Christian community. This
community is under daily threat and have neither the protection
of the government nor of the coalition forces." While exact numbers are unknown, reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Christians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Al-Basrah, and that both Sunni and Shi'ite insurgent groups and militias have threatened Christians. The gravity of the situation prompted Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani last week to ask Vice President Adil Abd al-Mahdi to take steps to protect the Christian community. Sunni imams in Baghdad have made similar statements to their congregations in Friday Prayer sermons. But there is little the government of Iraq can do to protect them.  The
Dominican Order has been present in Iraq for over 250 years. Dominican
friars, two congregations of sisters and hundreds of lay Dominicans
live there. Many of them have fled to small villages outside of
the larger cities in an effort to find safety. Insurgents laid siege to the Al-Durah neighborhood of Baghdad earlier this month and demanded that Christians living there pay jizya, a head tax on non-Muslims living under Muslim rule, to the mujahedin or else convert to Islam. The Islamic State also hung posters throughout Al-Durah calling on Christian women to veil their faces. Locals report that nearly 200 Christian families have fled the neighborhood recently with just the clothes on their backs. In other cases, families have been given 72 hours to pack their belongings and leave. Some have fled to Kurdistan, but the majority have left for Syria and Jordan, Christian leaders say. [ Sources: RadioFreeEurope, CNS, CNN, International Justice Promoters] Anne Lythgoe, OP |
RELATED LINKS Text
of the letter from fr. Carlos to Benedict XVI
Christian Persecution
Continues to Escalate |
SANTA
SABINA - June 5, 2007--As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to meet with
President George W. Bush, June 9th during his visit to Europe for
the G-8 Summit, Master of the Order, fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa has
asked the pope to intervene on behalf of the safety of persecuted
Christians in Iraq.