The end for Christianity in Iraq creeps ever closer

Social justice news
August 2006

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The end for Christianity in Iraq creeps ever closer
The future is looking increasingly bleak for Christianity in Iraq. Since 2002, Iraq’s Christian population falls by half. Christianity in Iraq is staring into the abyss, according to an Iraqi bishop who has described the country’s sweeping political changes as a failure.

Baghdad’s Bishop Andreas Abouna, who last year struggled desperately to ensure that freedom for Christians was enshrined in Iraq’s constitution has now described both processes as ‘a theory’ totally at odds with the reality of the nation's chaos and anarchy.

In a brutally frank interview with the charity Aid to the Church in Need, Abouna said the continuing crisis was continuing to drive his flock out of the country. He estimated that about half of Iraq’s Christian population had now left the country—as many as 600,000 people.

In the capital, which until recently was home to a disproportionately high number of Christians, he said that up to 75 percent had left, many of them not necessarily going abroad but heading to safer areas in the north of the country. And he thinks it is increasingly unlikely that the Iraqi faithful would ever return from the likes of Turkey, Jordan, and Syria, where they have sought sanctuary, originally as a temporary measure.

Abouna said, “What we are hearing now is the alarm bell for Christianity in Iraq. When so many are leaving from a small community like ours, you know that it is dangerous—dangerous for the future of the Church in Iraq.”

While stressing that Christians were not being targeted any more than other groups, Abouna spoke of how the faithful felt especially isolated and vulnerable as their numbers dwindle.

Painting a depressing picture of modern day Iraq, Abouna described how power was frequently down, with a heavy reliance on generators. Electricity was scarce, he said, in temperatures of 55C. A strict curfew was enforced, starting at 8.30pm every evening. “It is not normal,” he added.

He described the difficulties for priests and religious trying to minister to the faithful.

“It is not easy for them,” he said. “When they want to travel to other parts of Baghdad, they have to be very careful. They are doing their best to contact the families and bring them to church.”

Stressing that many people were out of a job and were lacking food and other vital supplies, he said that many of the Christians left behind in Iraq were the most vulnerable and had been too poor or too weak to leave.

The feeling of gloom was deepened by the apparent failure of the political process, despite last year’s ratification of a new constitution and a new administration following last December’s land-mark permanent parliamentary elections. He said, "The constitution and the political developments of the past 18 months or so have not helped at all. It is just a theory.”

For the bishop the worsening anarchy in Iraq is all the more frustrating coming almost exactly a year after he called on Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster to lobby for a change to the constitution to ensure freedom for all—in particular Christians.

“Everyone is asking: when will the violence stop? They want to rest. They cannot live like this—everyday there are these terrible things.”

As in previous interviews, Bishop Abouna appealed for prayers and urged people to continue to hope in the future.

“When you lose everything, the only thing that keeps you going is hope. The country is rich but lacking stability. Once the stability returns, the country will rise up again.”

He spoke of chinks of light and hope amid the darkness and despair, describing a Mass that he celebrated in Baghdad’s Church of the Assumption, which still went ahead despite an explosion at the nearby Russian Embassy.

Recalling the June incident, he said, “I asked if I could say Mass at the church, but the police told me it would be difficult because there were no roads open.

“I asked if it was forbidden to pray in the church at this time and they said: ‘You are most welcome. It is important that there people can see that there are at least some signs of stability.’ So the Mass went ahead and despite the fact that it was just a normal weekday Mass, there were 60 people there.”

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