Iraqi church bombings prompts Vatican concern for Christians' fate
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The bombing of five more churches in Baghdad, Iraq, has prompted new Vatican concern about the fate of Iraqi Christian communities.
The rudimentary but powerful bombs exploded within an hour and a half of each other beginning at 4 a.m. Oct. 16. No one was injured or killed, but heavy damage was reported to several of the churches.
At the Chaldean Church of St. Joseph, which was gutted by the bomb blast and a subsequent fire, Sunday Mass was celebrated Oct.17 following an all-night cleanup effort.
Other churches that suffered damage were identified as the Latin-rite Church of Rome, the Orthodox churches of St. Jacob and St. George, and the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Thomas.
Last August, car bombs at five Catholic churches killed 11 people and sparked an exodus of at least 10,000 Iraqi Christians into neighboring Syria and Jordan, church officials said.
Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul, Iraq, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the latest bombing, expressed shock and sorrow at the news. One of the churches bombed in August was in Mosul.
The terrorist groups that carry out such attacks "hope that many, many more Christians will go," Archbishop Casmoussa told Catholic News Service.
"Their strategy is to create fear among the Christians and push them out of Iraq," he said.
Following the latest bombings, the Vatican's missionary news agency, Fides, published a dossier of information asking: "What future lies ahead for Christians in Iraq if this massacre continues?"
It published what it called a "list of horrors," the names of 88 Iraqi Christians and the dates they were killed, almost all of them during the last nine months. The latest was a 14-year-old girl, a Chaldean Catholic, kidnapped by an Islamic group for ransom and killed "in cold blood" Oct. 14, it said.
Vatican officials have confirmed that acts of violence and intimidation against Iraqi Christians are increasing, as Muslim extremists consolidate their influence in Iraqi society.
Fides quoted an unnamed Iraqi nun from Mosul, who said Christians even in the once-safe northern part of Iraq were living a "nightmare of being attacked in their homes, kidnapped and killed by groups of radical Islamic terrorists."
"The fact is that there is no presence of police or civilian authority to govern this situation of anarchy. Many members of these extremist militias are well-known, but no one does anything," she said.
Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad said the recent church bombings were clearly designed to frighten Christians. The important thing was that no one was killed or injured, he told the Italian-based Catholic news agency, Asianews.
"These are inhuman acts. In the name of Iraqi Christians I ask everyone to pray that God may enlighten the minds of the people who are carrying them out," the patriarch said.
He noted that the homes of many Iraqi Muslims were also being attacked. It is a problem shared by all those working for peace, he said.
Patriarch Delly said only prayer would stop these kinds of attacks.
"May the Lord touch the minds of these people, who do not love Iraq," he said.
Iraq has about 700,000 Christians in a population of more than 25 million.
Other churches that suffered damage were identified as the Latin-rite Church of Rome, the Orthodox churches of St. Jacob and St. George, and the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Thomas.
Last August, car bombs at five Catholic churches killed 11 people and sparked an exodus of at least 10,000 Iraqi Christians into neighboring Syria and Jordan, church officials said.