Eastern Catholics rally against persecution in the Middle East

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
July 5, 2007

Nearly 100 local Catholics marched on Patriot Square Park in downtown Phoenix June 27 to draw attention to the Christians suffering in the Middle East.

Members of the Chaldean, Melkite and Maronite churches moved east down Washington Street chanting, “Equal rights for Iraqi Christians” and “Save Iraqi priests and churches.”

Many of them wore shirts featuring a picture of Fr. Ragheed Ganni, an Iraqi priest murdered June 3 along with three subdeacons in Mosul, Iraq. The four men had just finished celebrating Mass when militants stopped their car and shot them.

Amir Sitto, a local Chaldean Catholic and organizer of the march and rally, said that Fr. Ganni’s fate was, unfortunately, not too uncommon.

“We stand here today to show our support for Iraqi Christians,” he said on the stage at Patriot Square Park.

“All the people of Iraq are suffering tremendously. But the Christians are targeted specifically because of their faith,” he said. “Christians in Iraq are facing the threat of eradication from their homeland.”

Sitto noted that 15 Iraqi churches to date have been bombed or burned down, eight priests have been kidnapped, three have been killed and many Christian faithful are kidnapped, tortured or killed.

In addition, Many Iraqi Christians are forced to flee their homeland because of a tax levied on them for not being Muslim.

“One-half of Iraqi Christians have fled their country as a result of these inexcusable acts,” Sitto said.

Fr. Peter Boutros, pastor of St. John of the Desert Melkite Catholic Church, said that the time had come for American Christians to stand in solidarity with their persecuted brothers and sisters.

“We need to protect them. The entire world has forgotten them,” he said. “Let us stand in their defense. How can we be silent?”

The crowd listened to the speeches, waving flags — both American and Iraqi — and holding banners that read, “In Iraq, our priests are murdered, but our faith lives,” and “Iraqi Christians are peaceful people.”

That theme was elaborated on by Fr. Ghattas Khoury, pastor of St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church.

“Instead of insulting their persecutors, they offer them hospitality,” he said of Middle Eastern Christians.

Fr. Khoury told the crowd to take solace in the message often repeated by Pope John Paul II: “Be not afraid.”

“We are a people of hope,” he said. “Only the language of love will have victory.”

At the same time, Fr. Boutros voiced concern that the Middle East may soon lose an integral part of its cultural and religious landscape.

“[The Christians] are paying a heavy price and the world is watching with indifference and apathy. The Middle East is losing an important component of its symphony and its music is becoming cacophony,” he said.

Sitto proposed some measures that he said would halt the bloodshed and slow down the exodus of Christians from the Middle East.

“We are asking the U.S. government, the U.N. and all humanitarian organizations to help and save them since it seems that the Iraqi government cannot or will not protect its Christian citizens,” he said.

Sitto wants a secure zone set up for Iraqi Christians in Northern Iraq, where many of them live, to protect them until the government can secure their rights and safety.

He also implored the crowd to petition the U.S. government to allow Iraqi Christian refugees into the country. Many of the displaced Christians have relatives or friends within the United States, Sitto said.

At a recent Vatican meeting of church funding agencies for Eastern churches, Pope Benedict XVI said that Iraqi Christians are experiencing “authentic martyrdom.”

“I knock at the hearts of those who have specific responsibility that they would adhere to their serious obligation to guarantee the peace of everyone, without distinction, freeing them from the deadly illness of religious, cultural, historical or geographical discrimination,” the pope said June 21.

He lamented the violence in the region and offered solidarity to the churches there, as well as to “those who venerate the name of God and seek Him with a sincere conscience.”

After the speeches, Fr. Paulos Ghozairan, pastor of the local Chaldean Catholic church, led the crowd in a few hymns, their voices rising in a distinctive eastern melody.

Sitto made one more plea that all concerned Americans petition their congressmen and women to protect and save Iraqi Christians.

Catholic News Service contributed to this story.