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CURRENT
ISSUE: November 6, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 19Oakland,
CA
Rice asked to help halt persecution of Iraqi Christians
WASHINGTON
(CNS) -- Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., chairman of the U.S.
bishops’ Committee on International Policy, has asked U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice to “take several specific measures”
to reverse the growing persecution of Christians and other minorities
in Iraq.
In a letter to Rice, Bishop Wenski said the bishops feel “deep concern
and growing alarm at the rapidly deteriorating situation of Christians
and other religious minorities in Iraq.”
Among steps he urged the U.S. government to consider are the creation
of a new administrative region in the Plain of Nineveh area, where many
Iraqi Christians live, and the adoption of a “more generous refugee
and asylum policy” to assist displaced Iraqi Christians.
Bishop Wenski said he was writing on behalf of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, which released the text of his letter Oct. 30.
“The growing and deliberate targeting of Christians is an ominous
sign of the breakdown in Iraqi society of civil order and interreligious
respect and represents a grave violation of human rights and religious
liberty,” Bishop Wenski wrote.
Because of violence and the threat of violence, he said, “Christians
continue to decline from a prewar population of over 1.2 million to a
current estimate of about 600,000.”
“The recent beheading of a Syriac Orthodox priest in Mosul, the
crucifixion of a Christian teenager in Albasra, the frequent
kidnappings for ransom of Christians including four priests -- one of
whom was the secretary of (Chaldean Catholic) Patriarch (Emmanuel III)
Delly -- the rape of Christian women and teenage girls, and the bombings
of churches are all indicators that the situation has reached a crisis
point,” he wrote.
Bishop Wenski noted that while Christians represent only 4 percent of
Iraq’s population, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees,
44 percent of Iraqi refugees are Christian.
“The vulnerability of Christians and other religious minorities
is dramatic evidence of the growing security challenges facing the entire
nation of Iraq,” he said.
In calling for a separate administrative region in the area of the Plain
of Nineveh, Bishop Wenski reflected the views of a number of analysts
who believe such a solution would offer Christians a more secure framework.
“This could provide Christians and other minorities with greater
safety and offer more opportunity to control their own affairs with assistance
from the central government,” he wrote.
He also urged the U.S. government to work with Kurdish authorities who
control areas of northern Iraq where many Christians are fleeing.
Bishop Wenski called for “an urgent review of economic reconstruction
aid programs” to assure that aid is distributed fairly to all sectors
of Iraqi society.
He asked Rice to work with the governments of Turkey, Jordan and Syria
to assist Iraqi Christians who have fled to those countries.
An Iraqi Catholic prays during a Good Friday service
at the Virgin Mary Church in Baghdad.
CNS PHOTO/ALI JASIM/REUTERS
