Unity and peace not possible without the support of each other: Card. Sandri

December 15, 2012: ‘As one by one, beginning with two beloved priests, we remember those who lost their lives in this place offering the Sacrifice of Christ, Victim Immolated and Glorified, we hear many neighbors to watch over their families and the community of the Church, to pray for the universal Church, for the country of Iraq, for the East and the West. Their sacrifice was not in vain! The Lord has exalted the power of salvific suffering of her Son Jesus. This day and this beautiful Sacred Temple were prepared from the love of God, who did not forget their sacrifice and gave voice to their silence.’ Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches said these on Saturday. He was speaking at the consecration of the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Banghdad.

The Cardinal recalled the great bishop and martyr St. Cyprian who taught that "one cannot have neither the unity nor peace if the brothers do not support each other with mutual forbearance and the bond of concord with the help of patience."

Greeting Cardinal Emmanuel Delly, Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, and His Beatitude Ignace Youssef Younan, Patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church, Cardinal Sandri said that he witnesses the immense satisfaction of all the faithful Syrian Catholics of Iraq and the world, at consecrated the renovated Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. ‘It's really the joy of a whole people! We proclaim our faith in the Triune God, the God of glory that became man by the power of the Holy Spirit, added the Cardinal.

Cardinal Sandri conveyed the blessings of Pope Benedict XVI to all participants of the sacred rite, and especially for children, the sick and the elderly, lonely and abandoned. He told them that the Holy Father thinks of the Iraqi people, who live in a thousand uncertainties, and he is especially close to the young people because they are the future. Recalling Pope’s appeal to world leaders that ‘only respect the rights of individuals is the basis of civil society.’