Victims of Baghdad cathedral attack say goodbye at Rome's Gemelli Hospital
Posted on 12/17/2010 12:09:42 PM PST by NYer
.- With Christmas fast approaching, Iraqi Christians are coming to the hard realization that there may be a day when there are no more Christians left in their homeland.
“Christians are being extinguished in Iraq, while Iraq remains Muslim,” said Father Georges Jahola, a Syro-Catholic priest from Mosul, Iraq currently studying in Rome.
Those who remain want to leave because they do not feel safe, he said. “They see that there is no longer a place for Christians in Iraq. Even for us as a Church, we cannot deny it.”
For the past five weeks, Fr. Jahola has spent many hours ministering to victims of the Oct. 31 terror attack on Baghdad's Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation. Some of those most badly wounded in the attack, which left 58 dead, were flown to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
At Gemelli, he has been there to provide spiritual support to the patients and their families and to serve as an intermediary in an environment where they don’t speak the local language.
His close bond with the people was instantly visible Dec. 16 as he met with CNA in the hospital’s residence foyer, where the Iraqis have been living. The time has come for some to leave, while others remain in treatment.
They all know those who are going home face an uncertain future.
They are returning to Iraq, Fr. Jahola said, because they cannot bear the thought of living anywhere else. “Even if it costs them their lives,” he added.
Attacks on Christians in Iraq have continued since the cathedral massacre. On Dec. 15, Syro-Catholic Archbishop Athanase Matoka of Baghdad, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France: “The Christians of Iraq live in fear of the future.”
The Catholic archbishops in both Mosul and Kirkuk have already canceled Christmas vigil celebrations and announced sharply limited Mass schedules for Christmas day due to the threat of terrorism, according to the Italian bishops’ news agency, SIR.
Fr. Jahola acknowledged stories that have circulated among the Iraqis who are fleeing their homeland. He said he believes reports that Christian homes have been marked with red crosses as targets for Islamic extremists. The crosses are a warning of violence to come, he said. They are a sign, he said, that “these people are in (the) Church, so they are still alive. … that we still need to eliminate them.”
No place in Iraq, not even the more peaceful Kurdistan region, provides certainty for Christians to live safely, he said.
Fr. Jahola said that since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, every effort to protect Christians has failed. He criticized the walled compounds erected by the Iraqi government around church buildings as a sign of the government’s “incapacity” to keep the situation under control.
Meanwhile, the “decimation” of Christians continues, Fr. Jahola said. Their numbers have been more than cut in half from a population that 10 years ago was estimated around 1.5 million.
“It is alarming, that an ethnic people — a people who speak the ancient Aramaic language and have Christian roots — is being made extinct in the world. And no one intervenes,” he said.
As he pondered the fate of the many who are leaving Iraq, tears welled up in his eyes.
It is no simple thing to leave one’s homeland, he said, adding: “It's just not possible that all Iraqi Christians leave, but also dying there causes us grief.”
Fr. Jahola said that although it seems “absurd,” to return to Iraq, he plans to do so himself when he finishes his studies.
He believes the Iraqi population, shrinking though it may be, has a “unique destiny to maintain with the faith.”
The Baghdad cathedral attack inspired in him strength and resolve that he did not know he had.
“This for me is the strength of the martyrs who witnessed to their faith in the Church,” he said. “For me, I haven't yet done what I need to do, so that awaits me.”
Sound familiar? The Nazis used the Star of David to mark the Jews for persecution and extermination during World War II. During the Nazi-declared boycott on Jewish-owned stores, yellow Stars of David were painted over the windows.
As happened 70 years ago to the Jews, the mainstream media are completely ignoring these stories and so are our politicians.
Catholic Ping
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I want them here.
I want every ethnic or religious group persecuted by these Mohammedan maniacs to find refuge in America.
Like Brigette Gabriel, the Lebanese born Christian Arab, they will bring with them a needed hatred towards Islam and everything Islamic.
We need that here - DESPARATELY!
This is happening everywhere Muslims are the Majority!!!!
Muslim tolerance in action.
I do too.
Prayers for Christians throughout the world that are suffering persecution.
/sarcasm off/
I do too. And I want those g*d d***ed muslims OUT!
Filthy muslims make me puke. Effing devil spawn.
This isn’t just a Mohammadan/Christian thing.
Its a Mohammadan/Sikh, Mohammadan/Buddhist, Mohammadan/Hindu, Mohammadan/Jewish, Mohammadan/Ba’hai, Mohammadan/animist, Mohammadan/Zoroastrian, Mohammadan/agnostic, Mohammadan/atheist thing.
ANYONE who is NOT a Mohammadan is hated, persecuted and murdered by Maniacs. We are ALL their enemies and/or victims.
See:
Its a group set up by a Christian Lebanese Arab, forced to flee her homeland to escape Mohammadan Maniacs.
Fortunately for us, she chose America as her new home.
As happened 70 years ago to the Jews, the mainstream media are completely ignoring these stories and so are our politicians
The blood of the innocents will be on their hands and Jehovah will deal with them justly.
Christians were better off under Saddam than they are under US PCism in the land of Islam. God bless them.
And look what Sweden is doing (yes, I know they’re current heartthrobs because of their sexual assault case against Assange).....
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.N. criticized Sweden on Friday for deporting five Iraqi Christians back to their homeland as Iraq’s Christian community comes under severe threat of militant attacks.
.
The U.N.’s High Commission for Refugees said the five deported Christians were part of a group of at least 20 Iraqis who failed to gain asylum in Sweden and were flown out on Wednesday.
In a Friday release, the refugee agency called itself “dismayed” over the deportation
“they will bring with them a needed hatred towards Islam and everything Islamic”
My father and his family are Iraqi Christians (Assyrians). They came to the US in the ‘50s and ‘60s. And I can attest that they do hate Muslims.
Some Americans are shocked by their vehemence (aren’t all “people of color” supposed to be open-minded and tolerant?), but seeing what’s happening now (and knowing that it’s simply a continuation of what Assyrians have been subjected to for decades if not centuries—even if there was a lull during Sadaam’s reign) it doesn’t surprise me at all.
They’ve known the truth about the so-called “religion of peace” for generations.
Exactly why I want them here.
SEND THEM HERE!!
There is NO reason why any of these people persecuted by Mohammedan maniacs should not be allowed to emigrate to the U.S. under a hardship situation.
We need to bombard those feckless and cowardly s.o.b.s in COngress with letters DEMANDING this.
Do you hear any Republican ex-Presidents or present Republican senators /representatives speaking out? All they ever say is how great it is to have taken out Saddam and what a success Iraq turned out. And, they close ranks with the left to kiss the asses of CAIR and Arab princes.
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