Chaldean bishop: appeal for Mosul, emptied of Christians

(=ctober 28, 2008) The situation in Mosul (in northern Iraq) remains inflamatory. In just a few weeks, there have been 14 deaths and more than 10,000 Christians have left. The authorities are shuffling the responsibility to each other, while the carnage worsens. Rabban Al Qas, bishop of Arbil, has released an appeal, to be published. On Tuesday 12 Chaldean bishops will meet for three days in Erbil together with the Vatican Nuncio in Iraq to evaluate the situation. In his fervent appeal the Bishop says: “I wish to call upon all men of good will, those who respect man, and all believers in God to forcefully condemn the crimes that are being perpetrated against the Christians in Iraq, and in particular those taking place in Mosul in recent days.” He expressed that he was deeply encouraged by the appeal that the Holy Father Benedict XVI issued Sunday at the Angelus. The pope is the only one who is not forgetting us, and his words demonstrate how close we are to his heart, he said. His appeal yesterday also asked for a more decisive commitment on the part of "civil and religious authorities" to re-establish the rule of law and coexistence. What is taking place in Mosul today is precisely a result of this immobility on the part of the state, together with a distorted, fanatical, and fundamentalist mentality. This tragedy - which recalls the situation of the Christians in the early centuries - began immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.. He made a renewed appeal to Prime Minister al-Maliki, who has said that "Al Qaeda is responsible for all of this." Instead, it is up to him, as the authority, to re-establish peace without shirking his responsibility toward the Christians, said the Bishop. He also appealed to the Muslim world, that they may denounce what is taking place in Mosul, and so that love and respect of the other may make all men happier as they live in peace.