Iraq’s Christians gather a week from massacre

The Catholic community in Baghdad and throughout Iraq gathered for Sunday mass amid heightened security, following last weeks attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Church. Elsewhere, thousands took to the streets of cities in Canada and the US this weekend to commemorate last Sunday’s massacre and call for greater protection for the dwindling minority in Iraq.

Silent marches were held in Toronto and Detroit as well as other cities, organised through social networks and supported by the Christian Diaspora from the Middle East.

Christian leaders in the Holy Land gathered on Friday in Bethlehem for a mass in memory of the 58 worshippers killed in the Al-Qaeda assault on a Baghdad church. After the prayers, candles were lit in the main square of the West Bank city where Christ was born.
In order to express their closeness to the victims, the bishops of the Middle East announced three days of solidarity with the suffering Church of Iraq, days of prayer for the souls of Iraqi martyrs in every parish church, monastery and convent of the Holy Land, concluding Sunday.
Patriarchal exarch for the Syro-Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Monsignor Boutros Melki, who led celebrations in the Holy Land Friday, says “it is a sign of our communion with our brothers and sisters in Iraq”. He also reveals that the ceremony was attended by representatives from other Christian confessions and religions: Listen to Marie Duhamel’s full interview with Mons. Melki: