Christians in Iraq - and we thought we were having a difficult Christmas!

Christians in Iraq remain under siege, said the head of the North American branch of Open Doors on Monday.
Open Doors, which serves the international persecuted church, is one of a handful of Christian agencies working with vulnerable communities in Iraq in spite of widespread instability.
While there were around 550,000 Christians in the country prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Open Doors said it was difficult to determine how many were still there today as a succession of attacks targeted specifically at Christians has prompted many of them to leave.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that at least two million Iraqis have fled the country since the US-led invasion in 2003, while a further two million remain displaced within Iraq, mainly in the northern provinces.
The northern city of Mosul has been particularly hard hit this year. The latest wave of attacks in October left at least 25 Christians dead and saw thousands more flee the city. Earlier in the year, a number of churches were bombed by Islamic extremists in what Iraqi church leaders and rights groups believe is part of a deliberate campaign to wipe out the Christian population in Iraq.
“The situation continues to grow grimmer for the targeted minority Christian community in Iraq, especially in Mosul,” said Carl Moeller, head of Open Doors USA.
Open Doors is providing the remaining Christians with Bibles and other resources to help them live out their faith.
"The marginalised people of Iraq desperately need our support,” said Moeller. “Pray that 2009 will be the year when the violence will decrease and Christians will not be killed and kidnapped simply for their belief in Jesus Christ."
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a statement last week that although there had been some reduction in violence in Iraq since its last report on the country in May 2007, it remained “seriously concerned about severe violations of religious freedom there”.
“The situation is dire for Iraq's smallest religious minorities, including Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yazidis, who face a threat to their very existence in the country,” the USCIRF said.

Iraqi Christians urged to return!

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has urged Christians who fled the country after the US-led invasion to return home to help rebuild the country.
Speaking after meeting Pope Benedict XVI in Italy, Mr Maliki said he asked the pontiff to encourage Christians to rejoin Iraq's social structure.
Nearly half of Iraq's estimated 800,000 Christians are believed to have left the country since 2003.
Many of those who remain have been targeted by Sunni Muslim militias.
Churches and clergymen have come under attack, as Sunni and Shia groups have battled for supremacy.
Mr Maliki said he urged the Pope "to encourage Christians who left the country to go back and be part of the social structure of Iraq again".
He also confirmed he had invited the 81-year-old pontiff to visit Iraq.
"We hope that he will be making the visit as soon as he can. His visit would represent support for the efforts of love and peace in Iraq," he said.
Mr Maliki and the Pope met at the pontiff's Castel Gandolfo summer residence.
The Vatican released a statement saying they had discussed the situation of "many refugees inside and outside the country who need help, in particular with regards to their return".
The two men also issued a renewed condemnation of the continuing violence in Iraq, where Christian communities "strongly feel the need for greater security", the Vatican statement added.
The late Pope John Paul II wanted to visit Iraq in 2000 but was denied permission by the government of Saddam Hussein.

Christian in Iraq - Never give up

A leading Iraqi prelate has told how Christians have reacted with a show of defiance following the tragic death of an archbishop – an event which shocked the world.
Despite the ever-present risk of kidnappings and bomb-blasts, Easter Mass-goers have packed churches across the country both Sunday and the weekend before.
At least two Iraqi priests, until now studying in Europe, have decided to return to Baghdad in a move bound to boost the confidence of the country’s dwindling Christian community.
Discussing the Christians’ defiance in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Andreas Abouna of Baghdad said the people’s determination gave new cause for hope.
Speaking from Baghdad, the auxiliary to the Patriarch of Babylon (Baghdad) of the Chaldeans, said: “Our people are used to being part of a persecuted Church – it’s all we’ve ever known, almost from the beginning starting barely 400 years after Christ.
“They know it is their life to go through this.”
Bishop Abouna was speaking on Monday nearly three weeks after the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, of Mosul in northern Iraq.
The archbishop, 65, was kidnapped on the steps of his cathedral in an attack which left his driver and two bodyguards dead.
Archbishop Rahho died about two weeks later, apparently of natural causes, and was buried in a shallow grave in Mosul.
Meantime, reports have come in showing how Christians in the nearby Nineveh plains have held peaceful demonstrations calling for the arrest of Archbishop Rahho’s kidnappers.
Acting on an Easter appeal by bishops in Nineveh, Christians have taken to the streets with pictures of Archbishop Rahho and other ‘martyrs’ walking through villages including Karamles, where the prelate’s funeral took place on Friday, 14th March.
Bishop Abouna said there was still no further information about the kidnappers’ identity or motive. He refused to rule out the possibility of them striking again.
The bishop went on to stress how Christians were determined to “keep faith”.
The bishop said: “Many of the churches were packed with people – although in Mosul, it is different because until now the situation has been unstable.”
He said: “We – both us bishops and priests – have told the people that they have to stand by for anything and that they have to defend their faith. We have asked them not to lose hope in Christ.
“Christians in Iraq do not like being a persecuted Church but if persecution comes, we are ready.”
He spoke of his delight at the imminent return to Baghdad of the two priests, who cannot be named for security reasons. “This is wonderful news – a real sign of hope,” he said.
The return of the priests, who have received funding from ACN, will help allay fears that Archbishop Rahho’s death would spark another mass exodus of Christians from Iraq.
Before 2003, Christians in Iraq numbered up to 1.2 million but it is now thought that almost two-thirds have fled abroad, especially to Syria, Jordan and Turkey.
About Aid to the Church in Need:
Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity – whose UK office is in Sutton, Surrey – undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.