LONDON (CNS) — A Chaldean Catholic archbishop called for the redeployment of U.S. and British troops in Iraq to prevent the “genocide” of Christians and other minorities by Islamic State militants.

Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil, Iraq, said he believed the U.S. had a duty to “finish the mission” in his country by ridding the Ninevah Plain of extremists who last summer drove some 120,000 Christians from their homes.

He described the Islamic State as a “cancer” which had to be cut out if it was not to infect future generations of Muslims and create a potentially greater threat than Afghanistan under the Taliban and al-Qaida.

“I would like to see American or European or international troops alongside Iraqi troops working to liberate these lands, not alone but together,” he told Catholic News Service after meeting with some British politicians in the House of Lords Feb. 9.

“Definitely, I would like to see more involvement — more airstrikes, because that is also needed,” he said.

U.S. military expertise and resources were crucial in defeating the Islamic State, he told CNS, because neither the Iraqi army nor the Kurdish Peshmerga militia were sufficiently trained or equipped for the job.

“They (the Americans) know how to tackle these terrorist groups,” said Archbishop Warda. “The sooner they finish the mission the better, because this is a cancer which needs to be stopped and treated, because otherwise we would have generations of people growing up with the Islamic State mentality.”

He added: “We have to stop this cancer now, and we have to go for very difficult measures sometimes and very difficult decisions.”

“We have got 1.8 million displaced people in Kurdistan,” he added. “It is not just Christians; everyone is there.”

U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq Aug. 8 and expanded them to Syria Sept. 24, but has so far resisted any substantial redeployment of troops following more than a decade of military operations in Iraq.

Archbishop Warda told the meeting in London that he would like to see Britain, which took part in the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, also recommit ground troops to his country.

“It is hard for a Catholic bishop to say that we have to advocate a military action, but we have to go for that. There is no other option,” he said, warning members of Parliament that airstrikes alone were “not enough” and that time was running out for Christian refugees who wished to return home.

“If you are a politician I beg you to focus on that, to speak about this,” Archbishop Warda continued. “Military action is needed, a powerful one where they could really get those people out of these villages so that our people and others can return. Please use all of your efforts to make this happen.”

“Your voices are needed to speak loudly about the atrocities and the genocide that is there,” he added. “We would like to see our people back home as soon as possible, and I hope that I can meet politicians here to make that point.”

John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity set up to help persecuted Christians, told the meeting that no minority in the world was suffering with the same intensity as the Christians of Iraq, a community which has survived in the region since the first century but was now squeezed into refugee camps around Irbil.

“Christians in Iraq face the very real threat of being wiped out,” he said. “We recognise that as far as Christianity in Iraq is concerned, Irbil represents the last stand. With Christians gone from Irbil, it is more or less game over for Christians in Iraq.”

He added: “We must be clear that this extremism that we are seeing today bears comparison with some of the most despotic regimes this world has ever known. This is not the time for vacillation … this is the time for action.”

Archbishop of Warda visited Parliament as a guest of Lord Alton of Liverpool, a Catholic peer. He addressed the General Synod of the Church of England Feb. 10 and on Feb. 11 was due to celebrate Mass in Westminster Cathedral, London, with Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

— By Simon Caldwell, Catholic News Service. 

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Highlighting the life, suffering and enduring hope of St. Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese slave, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Martin D. Holley called for reflection and action to combat modern-day slavery during his homily on the first International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking Feb. 8.

We must “do everything in our power through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy to eradicate human trafficking,” the bishop told the nearly 1,000 people — including trafficking survivors — gathered for the noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Held on the feast of St. Josephine, the day was designated by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Union of Superiors General. Last year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services organized a national day of prayer for victims and survivors of human trafficking, and it spearheaded this year’s liturgy at the shrine.

The day offered the fruits of “compounded prayer” and was an opportunity to shed light on a pervasive tragedy, said Hilary Chester, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ anti-trafficking program, in an interview Feb. 6.

According to the U.N. International Labor Organization, there are nearly 21 million human trafficking victims worldwide.

Chester said that while there has been increased education and awareness, human trafficking is increasing.

In the United States, victims of labor trafficking are “all around us” in poorly regulated industries like agriculture, in-home domestic work, nursing home work and the food-service industry. Sex trafficked victims can be foreign nationals, but they also are U.S. citizens, often children who are in abusive homes or foster care situations.

“You see it all across the board,” Chester said in an interview with the Arlington Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.

In his homily, Bishop Holley told the story of St. Josephine, who was born in 1869 and enslaved as a child. Beaten and whipped nearly every day, young Josephine eventually was taken to Italy and freed with the help of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, an order she later joined. Canonized in 2000, she has been proposed as the patron saint of victims and survivors of human trafficking.

The bishop emphasized that human trafficking involves everyone and quoted Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”). The pope writes that many are guilty of “comfortable and silent complicity” in relation to the crime and have “blood on their hands.”

The pope addressed the global issue during his Sunday Angelus Feb. 8, asking government leaders to act decisively “to remove the causes of this shameful wound … a wound that is unworthy of civil society.”

About a dozen women who know such wounds firsthand were present at the shrine Mass and helped carry up the gifts during the offertory.

The women, all highly educated teachers from the Philippines, were lured to the United States by recruiters with promises of a better life.

Because of corruption and a poor economy in the Philippines, may people are forced to migrate, according to Jo Quiambao, secretary general for Gabriela DC, a grass-roots organization that works with Filipina human trafficking survivors.

Illegal recruiters use sophisticated tactics to exploit the situation in the island nation, and high-level government agencies are involved, often approving fraudulent travel documents, said Quiambao during a reception after Mass.

Such was the case with around 300 women — 200 now in D.C. — who were promised lucrative teaching jobs in the United States. After selling their homes and exhausting their savings to come to the states, the women found themselves jobless, moneyless and with illegal status.

The U.S. bishops’ anti-trafficking program, carried out through MRS, is working with Gabriela DC to connect the women to social services and to educate and empower them.

Quiambao said the international day of prayer is “essential because it helps survivors heal, and because they are encouraged by knowing other people care — that they are not alone.” She said it also affirms the need to speak out against the crime.

Along with Gabriela DC, a number of representatives from coalitions and organizations attended the Mass, including the Mid-Atlantic Coalition Against Modern Slavery. Composed primarily of women religious, it focuses on advocacy and education while providing some direct service to victims.

Coalition member Sister Carol Ries, of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, said human trafficking is an issue that should be close to all Catholics’ heart. It’s a “pro-life issue,” she said. “It’s about respect for women and children; it’s about human rights.”

In partnership with the USCCB, Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Charities of the Washington Archdiocese, the National Catholic School of Social Service at The Catholic University of America in Washington will host a two-day conference on human trafficking this July. Will Rainford, dean of the school, said the conference will raise awareness among priests, diocesan leaders and lay staff who come into contact with victims.

Chester hopes this year’s day of prayer motivates “Catholics in the pews” to discern their own ability to fight human trafficking, whether through volunteering, material donations, awareness-raising or working to change and enforce laws. “There are a lot of opportunities,” she said, “where people can start making a difference.”

— By Katie Scott, Catholic News Service. 

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) — Catholic and Orthodox archbishops in Ukraine appealed for national unity against pro-Russia separatists as calls mounted for the United States to help arm Ukrainian forces.

Citing constant danger to Ukraine, the church leaders called the war “a crime against life” that brings “suffering and death, grief and injustice” in a Feb. 4 statement.

Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv, president of Ukraine’s Catholic bishops’ conference, and Ukrainian Orthodox Archbishop Filaret Kucherov of Lviv within the Moscow Patriarchate were among those making the appeal.

“But Ukraine, tired and tested, remains unbowed in its faith and dedicated effort of will,” the religious leaders said. “Before our eyes, a new state is being born, a new generation of heroes willing to sacrifice life, forget comfort and tranquility and be the first to respond to the homeland’s cry for help.”

The appeal was published as fighting intensified after a new separatist offensive in the self-proclaimed rebel republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

It said Ukrainians had been unprepared for war and should avoid becoming accustomed “to the mundane sight of deaths and injuries” and “the grief of widows and orphans.”

“We urge mutual support, help in finding the truth and establishing unity in doubt and freedom in everything, since peace is a gift from God, the work of justice and the fruit of love,” said the signatories, who included leaders of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church and two smaller Orthodox churches.

“By uniting our efforts, we will overcome this aggression and evil in the name of dignity and the moral values, which will be the foundation of our invincible common future. We will safeguard the freedom granted us by God and not allow our country to be divided.”

NATO unveiled plans Feb. 5 to bolster its military presence in Eastern Europe, after Western officials accused Russia of sending troops and heavy weaponry into Ukraine, where fighting since April 2014 has left about 5,400 dead and 1.2 million people uprooted.

On Feb. 5, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande visited Kiev and were to travel Moscow Feb. 6 to present a new peace initiative. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Kiev Feb. 5 that the U.S. wanted a diplomatic solution but was currently “reviewing all options,” including the supply of “defensive weapons” to Ukraine.

In their declaration, the Catholic and Orthodox archbishops said Ukraine still needed “titanic, sacrificial work” to overcome the “disease of corruption,” which affected all of society “from senior officials to ordinary citizens.”

“But we are proud of our new heroes for their fortitude, patience and bravery, and for giving Ukraine so many examples of love of homeland,” added the church leaders, who have previously been divided over competing jurisdictions and property claims.

“We will continue to encourage unity through prayer, spiritual feats and physical accomplishments, since peace also means a struggle for life.”

Pope Francis, who will receive Ukraine’s Greek and Latin Catholic bishops Feb. 16-21 in “ad limina” visits, appealed for a “resumption of dialogue” in the country’s “tormented land” during his Feb. 4 general audience.

—By Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced Feb. 5 that Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress Sept. 24.

The pontiff’s “historic visit” would make him the “first leader of the Holy See to address a joint meeting of Congress,” Boehner said in a statement, adding that he was “truly grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation.”

Boehner noted that “in a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another.”

“We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people,” he added.

A statement from the Archdiocese of Washington called it “a great honor and tremendous joy to welcome our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to the Archdiocese of Washington during his proposed pastoral visit to the United States in September.”

The statement said the announced visit “will be a time of grace for all of us.” It also said the archdiocese looks forward “to the official announcement of more details of the visit.”

On Jan. 19 when the pope was on the plane returning to Rome from his visit to the Philippines, he told reporters that his September trip to the U.S. would take him to Philadelphia, New York and Washington — where he intends to canonize Blessed Junipero Serra.

The pope also confirmed he would visit the United Nations in New York. He had already announced his participation Sept. 26 and 27 in Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families there.

— By Catholic News Service.