Archbishop of Sydney

Christians In Iraq

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
4/5/2008

The death of another Australian soldier last week, in Afghanistan reminds us of the deadly struggle which continues there and in Iraq.  Neither theatre of war gives any sign of a quick victory.

I support the war in Afghanistan but never believed the second Iraq invasion was morally justified.  In fact we discovered Saddam did not have illegal chemical and biological weapons and was not supporting international terrorism; the reasons usually given to justify the invasion.

After the quick military victory of the "Coalition of the Willing" radically inadequate post-war planning by the U.S.A. leadership helped provoke terrible violence between Sunnis and Shiites in many parts of the country.  Law and order collapsed widely.

Press coverage of the Iraq conflict has slowed recently in Australia which probably indicates some improvement, a decline in the violence between the warring Islamic factions and against the U.S. forces.

Naturally we hope that the improvement continues, although this is not certain and we hope that the effective authority of the Iraq government spreads and increases.

But by any standards the situation of the Christians in Iraq is a true disaster and continues to worsen.

Chaldean Christians, many of them Catholic, have been in Iraq since before the fifth century, long before there were Moslems anywhere.  Estimates of their numbers before the war vary widely, but they might have been around 800,000.  Probably at least half have now fled.

Under Saddam Christians were oppressed but not fiercely and did not suffer extermination programmes like the Shiites and Kurds.  Saddam himself was always looked on with suspicion by Islamic radicals, because his tribe had remained Christian for 1000 years and only converted to Islam 300 years ago!

Hard times have gone and the worst of times has fallen on the Christians as fanatics wage a systematic campaign to terrorize them and drive them from the country.  The forces of order are unable and usually unwilling to defend them.

The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Paul Rahho, an active participant in dialogue and a worker for peace, was kidnapped and then shot last month.  90% of Mosul is outside government control and run by Sunni fundamentalists, so that Christians can choose to pay the tax on non-Muslims, flee or remain and be liable for kidnapping or death.

Nine churches in three cities were bombed in January, while explosions also hit an orphanage and a convent.  Last June a young Iraqi priest Ragheed Gani and three deacons were mowed down in a street after Mass by a hail of bullets.  An Orthodox priest was kidnapped, beheaded and dismembered in October 2006, and another shot in Baghdad last month.

Religious fanatics and criminal opportunists are combining to terrorize a minority without friends or protection.

While Christians are fleeing from every country in the Middle East if they can, the situation in Iraq is worse.  It is another example of ethnic cleansing.