Posted on 09/23/2016 6:45:02 PM PDT by marshmallow
In opposition to church officials, some Iraqis in the U.S. have been helping Christians escape Iraq
EL CAJON, Calif.—The backyard gathering was part Catholic Mass, part rebellion.
The priest, an Iraqi immigrant, had been kicked out of the local church. Parishioners had been warned by local church leaders not to worship with him. Yet 50 people sat in makeshift pews behind a home east of San Diego in a show of opposition to church officials urging Christians to stay in Iraq, where their numbers are dwindling.
“There is no future for Christians in Iraq,” said Bahaa Gandor, a 31-year-old who fled the country in 2010. “We have to bring them here.”
The Chaldean Catholic Church, a nearly 2,000-year-old branch of Christianity based in Iraq, is at war with itself over how to ensure its survival. And the dispute is threatening to fracture this ancient faith.
Some Chaldeans in the U.S. have been scrambling to help Christians escape Iraq, where they are being targeted and killed by Islamic State. But that work has put them in conflict with top church officials in Baghdad who say Chaldeans must stay and help preserve Christianity in the Middle East.
Tensions between Baghdad and the Chaldean diaspora have reached a breaking point in El Cajon, where many Chaldeans have settled.
Father Noel Gorgis, a priest who has spent much of the past two years lobbying the U.S. to accept more Iraqi Christian refugees, was expelled from his post at the church here in July. A longtime bishop, another advocate for Iraqi refugees, has also been forced to retire.
The changes have rocked the large Chaldean community in El Cajon, and some here have entered a quiet revolt against church hierarchy.
They have begun holding what they call “underground Masses” with Father Gorgis at homes in.....
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
So sad. We are encouraged to help islamists here and turn our backs on our fellow Christians who are being murdered and raped in Iraq. I’m at a loss to understand this!
Our government is riddled with muslims and muslim sympathizers.
A small point, but Eastern Catholics do not use the Latin term Mass for their liturgy.
It is a serious debate. Should Arab Christians all flee to the West, or should they stay and try to maintain a Christian presence in Arab countries?
Some facts are seriously missing in this story.
Yet their liturgy goes back further than the western Catholic Church.
This is of interest to me. What do they call their Liturgy (and that’s a Greek word) in Aramaic?
I think the loss of the Aramaic/Chaldean Christian community is an immense, profoundly wounding loss to the whole Church. It’s just unspeakably bad.
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