Erbil, Iraq, Oct 8, 2014 / 04:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An Iraqi bishop whose community is hosting more than 70,000 Christians who fled violence in Mosul and its surroundings has expressed dismay at the national government in Baghdad for failing to offer assistance. “The reality is that Christians have received no support from the central government. They have done nothing for them, absolutely nothing,” Archbishop Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Archeparchy of Erbil told Christian charity Aid to the Church in Need Oct. 5. “The central government is to blame. It has not fulfilled its commitment to the people. The government in Baghdad received a lot of help from the international community for the displaced people from Mosul and Nineveh – but there has been no sign of it here.” Archbishop Warda added that the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan – of which Erbil is the capital – had made it clear that it is unable to offer financial assistance because it had ceased receiving subsidies from the national authorities. Christians' concerns about the Iraqi national government, and their more positive relationship with the Iraqi Kurdish government, are not new, however. The Islamic State, a militant Sunni Islamist organization, was early this year among the rebels fighting in the Syrian civil war, but it spread its operations to Iraq in the spring, and took control of Mosul and swaths of territory in north and west Iraq in June. In mid-July, the Islamic State effectively expelled thousands of Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims from its territory, which it declared to be a caliphate. On July 11 – one week before the ultimatum which dramatically increased the numbers fleeing Mosul – Archbishop Warda had told Aid to the Church in Need that the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan was welcoming the fleeing Christians, and that they had a future there. “Not only is there security here, but the government is prepared to listen to our concerns. This became evident in the present refugee crisis,” the archbishop told Aid to the Church in Need. “The Kurdish government has opened the borders to Christians.” Fewer than two weeks later, on July 23, a local abbot, Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana, wrote that “public relations” statements made by the Iraqi government – such as its statement “we are all Iraqis and all Iraq is ours” – is akin to “a person who is issuing bank checks but he doesn't have a bank account.” “Nice words and sympathy statements are not enough. There should be deeds and practices,” Archimandrite Youkhana said. The day prior, the bishops of Mosul – gathered across denominations after being forced out of their city – assembled in the Erbil suburb of Ankawa for a meeting under the leadership of Chaldean Patriarch Sako. The bishops showed their gratitude to Iraqi Kurdistan “for receiving and embracing the displaced families, providing them with the necessary aids,” contrasting this with their statement to the national government that “we are waiting for practical acts to reassure our people, not for statements of condemnation and denouncement.” In mid-August, Pope Francis sent Cardinal Fernando Filoni, a former apostolic nuncio to Iraq, to serve as his personal envoy to the area. He spent most of his time in Erbil, where he met with both Masoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Fuad Masum, president of Iraqi. According to the Kurdish outlet “Rudaw,” Barzani told Cardinal Filoni that “it is the duty of the Kurdistan Regional Government to protect and support displaced Christians, Yazidis and other religious and ethnic groups seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region.” Barzani added, however, that the regional government “cannot provide adequate assistance,” given “the number of refugees and displaced people.” When he returned from Iraq, Cardinal Filoni told CNA that because Christians in Iraq are unarmed, “it is necessary that someone – in this case the legitimate authorities of the country – should defend minorities, especially those most in danger.” Despite Cardinal Filoni's meeting with Masum – and his delivery to him of a message from Pope Francis – Archbishop Warda's comments this month evidence that nothing has changed in Baghdad. “Our people have been abandoned,” he said. The bishop also charged that the Iraqi government has provided assistance to displaced Muslims, while neglecting the needs of displaced Christians, and that Muslim leaders in the country “have thus far failed to unequivocally condemn the violence carried out in the name of Islam, and the ejection of all Christians from their ancient Biblical homeland,” Aid to the Church in Need reported. More than 120,000 Christians fled Mosul and other towns in Nineveh province for cities in Iraqi Kurdistan this summer. In total, there are more than 1.2 million internally displaced persons in the country. Archbishop Warda said the displaced Christians in his eparchy and in Dohuk province are increasingly concerned for their future, after being away from their homes for two months now. He reported many feel betrayed, and are likely to emigrate. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the country's Christian population has already plummeted, from about 1.5 million to 400,000. “We visit the tents every day and speak to the people we are helping and they say they would like to go back to their homes immediately,” Archbishop Warda said. “But how can you live again among the people who were your neighbors who have betrayed you?” One Catholic who left Mosul told the bishop that he had seen video footage of his neighbor, whom he had considered a friend, pulling down the cross of a former church. He also told of another Christian who left Mosul who was phoned by a former neighbor to tell him he had entered his home and had taken all his cash, giving half to the Islamic State and keeping the other half for himself. Archbishop Warda's eparchy is coordinating food and shelter relief for the displaced, with the aid of international agencies. “Church agencies have been here helping us since day one and they remain with the people long after the headlines have moved on to something different,” he said. Aid to the Church in Need and the Knights of Columbus have both given more than $1 million to aid Christians in Iraq, and substantial aid has also been provided by Caritas agencies and Catholic Relief Services. “The crisis that has hit Christians from Mosul and Nineveh is not just a shock,” Archbishop Warda concluded. “It is for us genocide. All voices have acknowledged that this is a crime against humanity.”   Read more

Aleppo, Syria, Oct 7, 2014 / 04:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Militants linked to al-Nusra Front kidnapped a Catholic parish priest and as many as 20 people from a Christian village in Syria on Sunday night. The priest has been identified as 62-year-old Father Hanna Jallouf, O.F.M. “Let us pray for him and for the other victims of this tragic and senseless war,” the Custody of the Holy Land said on its website. The Custody of the Holy Land, which oversees Franciscan activity in the region, said the priest was kidnapped with several men from the Christian village of Qunaya on the night of Oct. 5-6. Qunaya is located in Syria's Idlib province, 29 miles west of Idlib, and 75 miles northwest of Hamah. “We are not able to say where Father Hanna and his parishioners are now and, at this time, we have no possibility of contact with him or his captors,” the Custody said. Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, O.F.M, vicar apostolic of Aleppo, told Fides that about 20 persons had been kidnapped, including “young people, both boys and girls,” and that the village monastery had been looted. Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custodian of the Holy Land, told Agence France Press that 20 villagers had been kidnapped along with the priest, a Syrian who has worked in the village for 12 years. The Franciscan nuns at the convent in Qunaya have taken refuge in neighboring houses. Before the Syrian civil war began, they ran the village’s youth center, kindergarten, and clinic. Fr. Pizzaballa said the militants accused the kidnap victims of collaborating with the government of  president Bashar al-Assad, a claim that the Custodian denied. One source told Agence France Press that the rebels were angry with Fr. Jallouf because he refused to give them olives harvested from trees on the convent’s land. A Syrian activist reported that al-Nusra Front had been trying to take control of some Franciscan properties in the Qunaya, resulting in Fr. Jallouf making a complaint to a religious court. The Franciscans have been present in Syria for 800 years, and established a presence in Qunaya in 1878. The kidnapping is the latest in a series of attacks on Christian religious in the Syrian civil war. In April, Fr. Frans van der Lugt, S.J., was murdered in Homs as he cared for the fewer than 30 Christians who remained in the city which had been blockaded by the Syrian regime for nearly two years. A Dutchman, he had worked in Syria since 1967, was involved in interreligious dialogue, and had built a spirituality center which housed some 40 children with mental disabilities. In December 2013, a group of Greek Orthodox nuns as well as women from their convent's orphanage were abducted by al-Nusra Front in Ma'loula, 35 miles north of Damascus. They were returned, unharmed, in March. In July 2013, Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, S.J., was abducted from Raqqa, a city controlled by the Islamic State. He had served the people of Syria for more than 30 years, and had been exiled by the regime in 2012 after criticizing Assad. While in Rome in September 2012, Fr. Dall'Oglio spoke to CNA with hope for Syria's future. Though officially exiled, he soon returned to minister in rebel-held areas of Syria. In October 2013, three months after his kidnapping, he was reported to be alive, but he remains missing. In April 2013, both the Greek and Syriac Orthodox bishops of Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi and Yuhanna Ibrahim, were kidnapped. Their driver, Deacon Fatha' Allah Kabboud, was killed. The bishops remain missing, though it has been rumored that only one of them is still alive. And in October 2013, seven relief workers from the Red Cross and Red Crescent were abducted. Four were released one day after their capture, but three remain missing. The Syrian conflict began in March, 2011 when demonstrations sprang up nationwide against Assad's rule. In April of that year, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters. Since then, the violence has morphed into a civil war which has claimed the lives of more than 191,000 people. The civil war is being fought among the Syrian regime and a number of rebel groups. The rebels include moderates, such as the Free Syrian Army; Islamists such as al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State; and Kurdish separatists. The war has resulted in more than 3 million Syrian refugees in nearby countries, most of them in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. An additional 6.5 million Syrian people are believed to have been internally displaced by the war. Read more

Yaounde, Cameroon, Oct 7, 2014 / 10:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Boko Haram terrorist activity spreading into Cameroon from northeastern Nigeria has caused local Catholic missionaries to increase security, but one bishop has stressed that relations with local Muslims are good. “The Boko Haram fighters supply themselves with food in the border area and attempt to make money by kidnapping. That's why the priests and nuns are now accompanied by the military when they visit the parishes close to the border,” Bishop Bruno Ateba of Maroua-Mokolo told Christian charity Aid to the Church in Need Sept. 30. He said armed soldiers now accompany missionary priests when they celebrate Sunday Mass. “It's the Boko Haram extremists who come to us from Nigeria and cause disruption; apart from that we have no problems with Muslims,” he said. Boko Haram has killed thousands since its insurgency began in 2009. The militant Islamist group is blamed for least 2,000 deaths in 2014 alone. The U.N. estimates their attacks have created more than 470,000 internally displaced persons, in addition to some 57,000 refugees outside of the country. The terrorist group has made highly publicized attacks in Nigeria, including the April abductions of hundreds of schoolgirls. However, the group has also been active in Cameroon. From late 2013 to April 2014, militants with the group have abducted a French priest, two Italian priests, and a Canadian nun in the country. They were all released within a few weeks of their abduction. Bishop Ateba speculated that the missionaries’ governments may have paid a ransom for their release. The bishop’s diocese is in Cameroon’s north and encompasses the country’s Far North province. The diocese borders northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram has been expanding. About half of the 3 million people in Cameroon’s Far North province are Christian, and Catholics comprise 25 percent of the total population. Another 25 percent are Muslim. The bishop said there is a “strong dialogue” with local Muslims, and Catholics and Muslims “regularly exchange views.” The Maroua-Mokolo diocese has 43 parishes served by 73 priests. The diocese is heavily reliant on foreign priests, with only 23 priests being from Cameroon. In addition, About 100 women religious provide pastoral care and run charitable institutions, Aid to the Church in Need reports. Bishop Ateba, who has headed his diocese since May, said his diocese is “a missionary area.” “That's why there are so many missionaries and religious priests working with us,” said the bishop, who is himself a member of the Pallottine apostolic society. He said the diocese has difficulty meeting its material needs. “We lack a lot of things. In Maroua we also have a small church, but we want to build a cathedral soon so that we do not have to conduct services in the open air,” he said.   Read more