Attentat contre la cathédrale de N.-D. de la Délivrance à Bagdad

Gregorios III : Un carnage d’une cruauté et d’une barbarie inouïe

Sa Béatitude Gregorios III, patriarche d’Antioche et de tout l’Orient, d’Alexandrie et de Jérusalem des Grecs melkites catholiques, a vivement condamné l’attentat contre la cathédrale de Notre-Dame de la Délivrance à Bagdad qu’il a qualifié de « carnage d’une cruauté et d’une barbarie inouïe. »
« C’est un attentat pour saper la bonne volonté des vrais constructeurs de ponts entre les cultures ; les courageux héros du dialogue interreligieux ; ainsi que l’optimisme du Synode pour le Moyen Orient » a-t-il ajouté considérant que « les musulmans en Irak et dans tous les pays arabes sont les seuls responsables de la sécurité des chrétiens, puisqu’ils détiennent le pouvoir, l’armée et les forces de l’ordre. »
Le Patriarche a souligné que si « les chrétiens sont pacifiques, patriotes, loyaux, fidèles à leur patrie et à leur pays, tolérants et naturellement portés au pardon […] ils ne sont pas passifs, lâches, peureux, tout comme ils ne sont pas voués aux vexations. Ils ne sont pas des moutons destinés à être égorgés par les intégristes. Les chrétiens sont les bâtisseurs des valeurs, des nations et des cultures, dont la culture islamique elle-même. »
Et Gregorios III conclut « Chers frères arabes, musulmans et chrétiens adoptons un discours unificateur et agissons ensemble pour bâtir un meilleur avenir pour nous, nos enfants et nos compatriotes. »

Raboueh, le 8 novembre 2010

Bain de sang chrétien dans la cathédrale
de Notre Dame de la Délivrance à Baghdad

Le carnage qui a eu lieu dimanche 1er novembre 2010 dans la Cathédrale Notre Dame de la Délivrance des Syriens Catholiques à Baghdad est d’une cruauté et d’une barbarie inouïe. C’est un attentat pour saper la bonne volonté des vrais constructeurs de ponts entre les cultures ; les courageux héros du dialogue interreligieux ; ainsi que l’optimisme du Synode pour le Moyen Orient.
Je présente des sincères condoléances et l’assurance de ma prière et celle de mon église à Sa Béatitude le patriarche Ignace-Joseph III Younan, à Son Eminence le cardinal Emmanuel III Delly et à tous ceux dont le cœur a été blessé par ce crime.
Nous savons que cet acte criminel n’est pas le fait de l’islam authentique, et ne peut être fondé sur lui. Malgré cela, nous considérons que les musulmans en Irak et dans tous les pays arabes sont les seuls responsables de la sécurité des chrétiens, puisqu’ils détiennent le pouvoir, l’armée et les forces de l’ordre.
Nous sollicitons les pays arabes afin qu’ils étudient la réalité du terrorisme du fondamentalisme et des courants qui s’en inspirent. C’est une responsabilité islamique globale, pace que présenter l’Islam sous cette forme est une défiguration de l’Islam authentique. Les vrais ennemis de l’Islam et des musulmans ne sont ni « l’Islamophobie » ni « l’Europe chrétienne » mais plutôt ces organisations et courants intégristes.
Elles sont aussi l’ennemi du christianisme et de toute valeur chrétienne et musulmane, sociale et humaine, arabe et non-arabe.
Les chrétiens sont pacifiques, patriotes, loyaux, fideles à leur patrie et à leur pays, tolérants et naturellement portés au pardon. Mais ils ne sont pas passifs, lâches, peureux, tout comme ils ne sont pas voués aux vexations. Ils ne sont pas des moutons destinés à être égorgés par les intégristes. Les chrétiens sont les bâtisseurs des valeurs, des nations et des cultures, dont la culture islamique elle-même.
Si les musulmans ne font rien pour sauvegarder cette souche créatrice que sont les chrétiens arabes en Irak et dans tout le Moyen Orient, la prospérité et l’élan de la culture musulmane seront en danger d’effondrement, et les musulmans seront alors leurs propres ennemis, ennemis de leur foi et de leurs pays.
Chers frères arabes, musulmans et chrétiens adoptons un discours unificateur et agissons ensemble pour bâtir un meilleur avenir pour nous, nos enfants et nos compatriotes.

Gregorios III
Patriarche d’Antioche et de tout l’Orient

d'Alexandrie et de Jérusalem

Rabweh, 8 November 2010

Christian bloodbath
in the Cathedral of our Lady of Deliverance
Baghdad

The carnage which took place on Sunday, November 1, 2010 in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of our Lady of Deliverance in Baghdad was of an unprecedented cruelty and barbarity. It was an attack capable of undermining the good will of genuine bridge-builders between cultures, brave heroes of inter-religious dialogue, as well as the optimism of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East.
I offer my sincere condolences and the assurance of my prayers and those of our Church to His Beatitude Patriarch Ignace-Joseph III (Younan), to His Eminence Cardinal Emmanuel III (Delly) and to all those who are broken-hearted at this crime.
We know that this criminal act is not the work of authentic Islam, and cannot be based on it. Despite that, we hold Muslims in Iraq and in all Arab countries to be responsible for Christian security, since they have power, and control the army and police force.
We urge Arab countries to study the reality of fundamentalist terrorism and the trends that feed on it. This is a global Islamic responsibility, because showing Islam under that guise is a disfigurement of authentic Islam. The real enemies of Islam and Muslims are neither “Islamophobia” nor “Christian Europe,” but rather these fundamentalist organisations and trends.
They are also the enemies of Christianity and of every Christian and Muslim social and human value, whether Arab or not.
Christians are peaceable, patriotic, loyal, faithful to their homeland and countries, tolerant and naturally inclined to forgiveness. But they are not passive, cowardly, timid, any more than they are inclined to be humiliated. They are not sheep, designed to be slaughtered by fundamentalists. Christians are builders of values, nations and cultures, including Islamic culture itself.
If Muslims do nothing to safeguard this creative strain represented by Arab Christians in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, the prosperity and drive of Islamic culture will be in danger of collapse, and Muslims will then be their own worst enemies, enemies of their faith and of their countries.
Dear Muslim and Christian Arab brothers, let us adopt a unifying way of talking and act together to build a better future for all our children and compatriots!

Gregorios III

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

Newsmax
Vatican Responds to Attacks on Christians in Iraq
Thursday, November 11, 2010 10:16 AM
By: Edward Pentin

Iraqi Christians in Baghdad are becoming increasingly anxious after a series of targeted attacks on them by al-Qaida affiliated groups.

The coordinated acts of terrorism, which killed three and left 27 injured, began yesterday evening when three Christian homes were bombed in the Iraqi capital. The violence continued Wednesday morning with mortar bombs in another two largely Christian neighborhoods in the southern part of the city.

The Islamic State of Iraq, a group associated with al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for the bombings.

They follow what Pope Benedict XVI described as a “ferocious” act of terrorism on Oct. 31 when at least 58 Iraqis were killed and 78 wounded in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Baghdad.

According to the Iraqi Christian news service Ankawa, the terrorists who perpetrated Wednesday’s attacks targeted one family after seeing funeral signs still hanging outside their home in respect of those killed a week earlier. Some Church leaders are openly criticizing the government for failing to provide adequate protection for Christians.

Hours before Wednesday’s attacks, a senior Vatican official stressed that violence against Christian minorities in the Middle East are crimes that must be opposed. Addressing the general assembly of Interpol in Doha, Qatar, Archbishop Carlo Marina Vigano described the Oct. 31 atrocity as an act of “unheard-of ferocity against defenceless people joined in prayer.”

He also noted that Muslims are also victims of these “atrocious” attacks. “Terrorists committing the violence lack respect not only for human dignity but even for those of their own religion,” he said.

The increase in violence is particularly upsetting for the Vatican and the Catholic Church as it comes just weeks after a major synod of bishops in Rome on the Middle East which aimed at building up the hopes and resolve among the region’s Christian population.

Of particular concern to the Church is the emigration of Christians from Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, many of whom are leaving because of the violence and insecurity instigated by Islamic extremists.

Jesuit priest Philippe Luisier, who teaches at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome — an institution devoted to the study of Catholic churches in the Middle East — said the violence has two goals: “to discourage the Christian presence in Iraq and to awaken in the Western world equally violent reactions.”

“We must resist this double temptation,” he said, adding that there must be justice if peace is to be achieved in the country.

Until these latest attacks, Christians had been starting to return to Baghdad, especially to the Dora district which is known as the “Vatican of Iraq” because of its large number of Catholic churches and religious houses.

But many Church leaders in Iraq now appear resigned to believing that this recent violence will prompt a further exodus of Christians from the Iraqi capital. According to figures given to Aid to the Church in Need, a Christian charity, in 2003 the number of Christian families living in the Iraqi capital was 40,000; now it is barely 50.

One Syrian Orthodox bishop based in London this week even called on Iraqi Christians to leave the country because it was so dangerous, but his comments were rejected by at least one priest in Baghdad who said that although they were afraid, they were not desperate.

The consequences of an Iraq devoid of Christians could have grave consequences for the region and the world, according to Catholic experts on the Middle East. The country is home to some of the earliest Christian settlements and has long been known as the “cradle of civilization.”

At last month’s Vatican synod, Greek-Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Antioch warned that if the region is emptied of Christians, it would herald “a new clash of cultures, of civilisations and even of religions, a destructive clash between the Muslim Arab East and the Christian West.”

This was also the overriding concern of John Paul II and one of the main reasons why he so forcefully opposed the Iraq War in 2003.

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