Pope prays for true rebirth in Iraq as victims laid to rest
The victims of Sunday’s massacre in Our Lady of Salvation Church Baghdad were laid
to rest Tuesday. A telegram from Pope Benedict to the leader of the Syro-Catholic
Church in the Iraqi capital, Archbishop Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka, was read out
to mourners during the funeral service.
The Pope says “deeply moved by the
violent death of so many faithful and their priests Tha’ir Saad and Boutros Wasim,
I wish, during the sacred funeral rite, to share spiritually in this occasion and
pray that these our brothers and sisters are welcomed by the mercy of Christ into
the Father's House”.
He continues “for years this country has been suffering
untold hardships and even Christians have become the subject of brutal attacks that,
in total disregard of life – an inviolable gift from God - want to undermine confidence
and peace”.
Pope Benedict writes “I renew my call that the sacrifice of our
brothers and sisters may be the seed of peace and true rebirth, and that those who
care about reconciliation, solidarity and fraternal coexistence, find the strength
and motivation to do good”.
Hundreds of Catholics and non Catholics gathered
at the Church of St Joseph in central Baghdad Tuesday, the Feast of All Souls, to
bury the dead from Sunday’s ferocious attack. “This attack has been condemned by the
whole Iraqi community! It is not a matter of faith! Certainly, the intention is to
create chaos. There are dark forces that have entered the country only to create this
division and to prevent the process of pacification of Iraq”, says Corbishop Philip
Najem, procurator for the Chaldean Catholic Church.
“I heard yesterday that
there were many Muslims who had gone to donate blood for the victims who were injured
in the church. The extremists have been condemned by Muslims themselves: by that Islam
that knows God, that knows faith, that knows love, that knows charity!”
On
Sunday Islamic militants killed 58 people and wounded nearly 80 in a shocking attack
during evening Mass at the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation.
On
Tuesday speaking to a packed and distraught congregation Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel
III Delly, urged the government to protect the nation's Christian community and not
let their promises just be ink on paper. He said “We are gathered here in this sacred
house to say farewell for our brothers who were just the day before yesterday exclaiming
love and peace”.
An Iraqi military spokesman said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
ordered the detention of the police commander, whom he did not identify by name. The
commander was in charge of securing the Karradah neighborhood in Baghdad where Our
Lady of Salvation is located.
Also Tuesday, speaking from Syria where he is
on official visit, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said the assault was “very
painful” for the stunned nation because “it harbours a sinister plan to empty the
region of one of its main components: the Christians”.
Corbishop Philip Najem
says that the Iraqi community as a whole has been gathering around the Christian community:
“This is a barbaric attack, different from other attacks. This time the extremists
have come to a church where people were praying. They were innocents attacked by people
who do not know the meaning of prayer, the meaning of God the Creator. So no one can
say that this has been done in the name of a religion, a faith or a god. This is an
attack against humanity, against the Church, against religion, against faith, against
the dignity of the human being”. Emer McCarthy reports: