TBB* rant of the day

So, when all hell breaks loose in October, the question to ask is "Where will Peter be?"

The next question is "Where will that leave us?"

I've asked it for weeks now.

Maybe we already know.

Communion for the Remarried. Francis Has a Yes "In Pectore"

The pope has given the go-ahead for discussion. He doesn't say whether he is on the side of those in favor or those against, but he appears to be much closer to the former than to the latter. An Australian theologian explains why

by Sandro Magister




ROME, September 8, 2014 – The latest to call for a radical change in the Church's practice and doctrine on marriage is the Belgian bishop of Antwerp, Johan Jozef Bonny.

He did so in early September with a thirty-page memorandum in multiple languages, which he also sent to Pope Francis.

Because the presumed support of Jorge Mario Bergoglio is inevitably part of the arguments of the cardinals, bishops, and theologians who are calling for the change, which would mean granting Eucharistic communion to the divorced and remarried: a key argument of the synod of bishops on the family set to have its first session in Rome this October.

Pope Francis has never said explicitly what his position is in the dispute - to which he intentionally gave free rein - between the proponents and opponents of the change.

When, for example, he defended in strong words the encyclical of Paul VI "Humanae Vitae," he disappointed the innovators, who see that very encyclical as an emblem of the disastrous detachment of the magisterium of the Church from the spirit of the times and the practice of the faithful themselves.

But on the contrary there are are increasingly numerous testimonies on how Bergoglio, as an archbishop, encouraged his priests to give communion to the cohabiting and remarried. He himself, as pope, spoke by telephone last April with a civilly divorced and remarried woman of Buenos Aires and advised her to “go receive communion in another parish if her pastor did not give it to her.” This according to the woman's account, which has not been refuted.

Read the rest here.

And this:

Pope's Morning Homily: Good News Brings Joy, Renewal

Says the Gospel Can Only Be Lived Fully by a Heart That Is Joyful and Renewed

Vatican City, September 05, 2014 (Zenit.org) Staff Reporter | 1506 hits

In his homily in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican on Friday morning, the Holy Father reflected on the “newness” of the Gospel – as Good News, and as a bringer of New Things – that frees the person who believes it from slavery to automatic legalism, and opens the heart to the new commandment: love.

The Gospel reading for Friday told the story of the Scribes, who badgered Jesus about the behavior of His disciples, by pointing out that they did not – as the disciples of John the Baptist regularly did – fast and offer prayers. The Lord would not let Himself be provoked, however:

“New wine, new wineskins: the ‘novelty’ of the Gospel – and what does the Gospel bring us? Joy and renewal [It. novità]. These Doctors of the Law were hidebound by their commandments, their rules. St. Paul, speaking of them, tells us that, before faith came – that is, Jesus – we were all kept in custody, as prisoners under the Law. This Law, of this people, was not bad: they were cared for, but they were prisoners, awaiting the advent of faith – that faith, which would be revealed in Christ, itself.” Jesus told the peopel to obey the law but not to follow the example of bad priests!

Pope Francis went on to observe that the People had both the Mosaic Law and a host of customs and smaller legal requirements that the Doctors of the Law had codified. “The Law,” said Pope Francis, “cared for the people, albeit as prisoners are cared-for, and the people were awaiting liberty – that ultimate liberty that God would give to His people through His son.”:

“One of you might say to me: ‘But Father, don’t Christians have laws?’ Yes. Jesus said: ‘I do not come to [abolish the Law], but to fulfil it.’ – and the Beatitudes, for example – the law of love – total love – as Jesus loved us, are the fullness of the Law. Jesus, when he reproves these Doctors of the Law, is taking them to task for not caring for the people with the Law, but making them slaves to so many little laws, so many little things that had to be done.” So many "little laws' like not receiving communion in the case of mortal sin -- divorced and remarried without a declaration of nullity that the first "marriage" did not exist??

Pope Francis went on to explain that all these “little things” that had to be done, had to be done without the freedom that Jesus brings to us with the new law, which He promulgated with His blood. “This,” he said, “is precisely the ransom that the people were awaiting,” while they were, “under the guardianship of the Law, however as prisoners.” The Holy Father also explained that another central lesson of this reading is that the Lord wants us not to be afraid of changing things according to the law of the Gospel: Specifically what do we need to change now, Holy Father? What exactly is it that you are referring to? Never have I heard this passage interpreted in this manner. My understanding is that Our Blessed Lord did not come to "destroy the law but to fulfill it?"

“St. Paul clearly distinguishes the children of the law from the children of faith: new wine in new wineskins – and this is why the Church asks all of us to change certain things.Change what, Holy Father? Please tel us!  She asks us to let go of decadent structures – they are useless – and to take up new wineskins, those of the Gospel. One cannot understand the mentality of these Doctors of the Law – for example – these Pharisaical ‘teachers’: the style of the Gospel is a different style, that brings the fullness of the Law – yes- but in a new way: it is the new wine in new wineskins.” "Decadent structures? Like ancient church buildings sold off for bookstores, concert venues, banquet halls and mosques? "Cannot understand these Doctors of Law?" Yes, you are right, We can understand these "Doctors" of some new "Law."

Pope Francis concluded, saying once again that the Gospel is something new, something that brings joy, something that can only be lived fully by a heart that is joyful and renewed, and prayed that God give everyone the grace to keep the new commandment of love, and the joy of that freedom, which the Good News brings.  

Have a thumbs up kind of day!

*TBB = Trad Behaving Badly

Each and ever Muslim who keeps silence is a traitor!

Rally for Iraqi Christians on Parliament Hill - Archbishop Prendergast

What he said.

Washington Monsignor's posts scrubbed from Archdiocesan webpage! -- Updated

Updated:

Monsignor Pope's blog is back up and he answers the question, "What happened to the St. Patrick's Parade Post?"

Therefore, based on the facts we can know and can conclude:

1. The chancery masters (the Archbishop and his minions) were apoplectic that the Monsignor would write against the imprudent and insane decision of the Cardinal Archbishop of New York.

2. They scrubbed the blog post.

3. They scrubbed the blog.

4. They did not expect that the Catholic and Trads Behaving Badly blogosphere would blow-up in their faces.

5. They reposted Monsignor's blog, less the article (archived forever below).

6. They think we're stupid and have found out suddenly that really, they are.

Msgr. Charles Pope wrote this article below on his blog earlier today. The  blog, once a popular part of the web page of the Archdiocese of Washington has been scrubbed.

Time to End the St. Patricks Parade and the Al Smith Dinners?

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

The time for happy-clappy, lighthearted engagement of our culture may be nearing an end. Sometimes it takes a while to understand that what used to work no longer works. Let me get more specific.

Decades ago the “Al Smith Dinner” was a time for Republicans and Democrats to bury the hatchet (even if only temporarily) and come together to raise money for the poor and to emphasize what unites us rather than what divides us. But in the old days the death of 50 million infants was not what divided us. We were divided about lesser things such as how much of the budget should go to defense and how much to social spending. Reasonable men might differ over that.

But now we are being asked to raise toasts and to enjoy a night of frivolity with those who think it is acceptable to abort children by the millions each year, with those who think anal sex is to be celebrated as an expression of love and that LGBTQIA… (I=intersexual, A= Asexual) is actually a form of sanity to which we should tip our hat, and with those who stand four-square against us over religious liberty.

Now the St. Patrick’s Parade is becoming of parade of disorder, chaos, and fake unity. Let’s be honest: St. Patrick’s Day nationally has become a disgraceful display of drunkenness and foolishness in the middle of Lent that more often embarrasses the memory of Patrick than honors it.

In New York City in particular, the “parade” is devolving into a farcical and hateful ridicule of the faith that St. Patrick preached.

It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other “Catholic” traditions that have been hijacked by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patrick’s Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses. Let’s do adoration and pray the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet unceasingly for this poor old world.

But don’t go to the parade; stay away from the Al Smith Dinner and all that “old school” stuff that hangs on in a darkened world. And as for St Patrick’s Day, it’s time to stop wearin’ the green and instead take up the purple of Lent and mean it. Enough of the celebration of stupidity, frivolity, and drunkenness that St Paddy’s day has become. We need penance now, not foolishness. We don’t need parades and dinner with people who scoff at our teachings, insist we compromise, use us for publicity, and make money off of us. We’re being played for (and are?) fools.

End the St Patrick’s parade. End the Al Smith Dinner and all other such compromised events. Enough now, back to Church! Wear the purple of Lent and if there is going to be a procession, let it be Eucharistic and penitential for the sins of this age.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!

How say you?

Assumption Windsor to close -- oldest Catholic parish in Canada west of Montreal

Assumption Church of Windsor, the oldest parish in Canada west of Montreal is to be closed immediately. It is also the home of the traditional Mass community in Windsor.

The church needs $10,000,000 in repairs.

The amount paid out due to priests convicted of sexual crimes in the Diocese of London.

I am speechless.

St. Perfectus of Cordoba, Priest & Martyr, Intercede for us

Beheaded by the Moors of the Umayyad Caliphate (Muslims), Saint Perfectus (Santo Perfecto, died 850) was charged with "blasphemy", denouncing Islam and Muhammad to the very end:

"I have cursed, yea, and I will curse your prophet :

I have called and I do call him the spawn of devils, 

a magician, an adulterer, and a liar! 

I denounce the profanations of your sect to be the invention of hell."

While uttering these truths, the scimitar separated his head from his body.

Perfectus, a Spanish priest who served at the basilica of St. Aciscius just outside the city walls, was stopped one day on his way to market by a group of Muslims. Seeing that he was a priest, they asked him to explain the "catholic faith" and to share with them his opinions about Christ and Muhammed. Fearing that he would only provoke his audience, Perfectus declined. But when the Muslims swore to protect him, he proceeded, in Arabic, to decry Muhammed as one of the false prophets foretold by Christ and as a moral reprobate who had seduced the wife of his kinsman.

Though angered by the harsh attack, the Muslims respected their oaths and let Perfectus go on his way. But a few days later the priest ran into some of the same group, who no longer felt constrained by their earlier promise. Seizing Perfectus, they took him before the magistrate and testified that he had disparaged the prophet. As they led Perfectus to prison to wait out the holy month of Ramadân, he repeatedly denied his guilt. Only when he realised that his fate was sealed did he repeat his denunciation of Islam. On April 18, 850, Perfectus was decapitated before the crowds that had gathered to celebrate the end of the feast. He died on Easter Sunday.

St. Perfectus was one of the Martyrs of Córdoba whose martyrdom was recorded by Saint Eulogius in the Memoriale Sanctorum.

James Foley, Requiescat in Pace

The Moslem barbarians (I will not give them the credence of identifying them as a nation state), continue their slaughter of humans as if they were nothing more than animals. The practice of slitting the throats of animals in a painful and torturous manner under the religious edict of "Halal" is good practice for the necks of humans beings. 

The death cult of Mahomet, the diabolical, murderous, lecherous, thief and child-molester which some poor souls think is a prophet of the one God of the Universe continues unabated.

The question now is, will the man occupying the White House that says "America is no longer a Christian nation" and applauds and longs for the sound from the minaret of his evil "Muslim faith" do anything considering the beheading of this latest American. He clearly cares not for Syria or Iraqi Christians, will he care for his own?

Following up on the "smiting of the neck" of the "Jew" Nick Berg, another American journalist and a Catholic, James Foley, has been dispatched to eternity with all the efficiency of a Halal butcher.

May Nick have said yes to the Messiah Yeshua and be with Him now. May James who knew the Messiah and His Mother through the Rosary that strengthened him be in the arms of the Lord.

May his parents be comforted.

May these devils be confounded.

Courtesy of Father Z and James' mother's Twitter:

Phone call home
A letter from James Foley, Arts ’96, to Marquette.

Marquette University has always been a friend to me. The kind who challenges you to do more and be better and ultimately shapes who you become.

With Marquette, I went on some volunteer trips to South Dakota and Mississippi and learned I was a sheltered kid and the world had real problems. I came to know young people who wanted to give their hearts for others. Later I volunteered in a Milwaukee junior high school up the street from the university and was inspired to become an inner-city teacher. But Marquette was perhaps never a bigger friend to me than when I was imprisoned as a journalist.

Myself and two colleagues had been captured and were being held in a military detention center in Tripoli. Each day brought increasing worry that our moms would begin to panic. My colleague, Clare, was supposed to call her mom on her birthday, which was the day after we were captured. I had still not fully admitted to myself that my mom knew what had happened. But I kept telling Clare my mom had a strong faith.

I prayed she’d know I was OK. I prayed I could communicate through some cosmic reach of the universe to her.

I began to pray the rosary. It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. 
I said 10 Hail Marys between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Marys off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.

Clare and I prayed together out loud. It felt energizing to speak our weaknesses and hopes together, as if in a conversation with God, rather than silently and alone.

Later we were taken to another prison where the regime kept hundreds of political prisoners. I was quickly welcomed by the other prisoners and treated well.

One night, 18 days into our captivity, some guards brought me out of the cell. In the hall I saw Manu, another colleague, for the first time in a week. We were haggard but overjoyed to see each other. Upstairs in the warden’s office, a distinguished man in a suit stood and said, “We felt you might want to call your families.”

I said a final prayer and dialed the number. My mom answered the phone. “Mom, Mom, it’s me, Jim.”

“Jimmy, where are you?”

“I’m still in Libya, Mom. I’m sorry about this. So sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, Jim,” she pleaded. “Oh, Daddy just left. Oh … He so wants to talk to you. How are you, Jim?” I told her I was being fed, that I was getting the best bed and being treated like a guest.

“Are they making you say these things, Jim?”

“No, the Libyans are beautiful people,” I told her. “I’ve been praying for you to know that I’m OK,” I said. “Haven’t you felt my prayers?”

“Oh, Jimmy, so many people are praying for you. All your friends, Donnie, Michael Joyce, Dan Hanrahan, Suree, Tom Durkin, Sarah Fang have been calling. Your brother Michael loves you so much.” She started to cry. “The Turkish embassy is trying to see you and also Human Rights Watch. Did you see them?” I said I hadn’t.

“They’re having a prayer vigil for you at Marquette. Don’t you feel our prayers?” she asked.

“I do, Mom, I feel them,” and I thought about this for a second. Maybe it was others’ prayers strengthening me, keeping me afloat.

The official made a motion. I started to say goodbye. Mom started to cry. “Mom, I’m strong. I’m OK. I should be home by Katie’s graduation,” which was a month away.

“We love you, Jim!” she said. Then I hung up.

I replayed that call hundreds of times in my head — my mother’s voice, the names of my friends, her knowledge of our situation, her absolute belief in the power of prayer. She told me my friends had gathered to do anything they could to help. I knew I wasn’t alone.

My last night in Tripoli, I had my first Internet connection in 44 days and was able to listen to a speech Tom Durkin gave for me at the Marquette vigil. To a church full of friends, alums, priests, students and faculty, I watched the best speech a brother could give for another. It felt like a best man speech and a eulogy in one. It showed tremendous heart and was just a glimpse of the efforts and prayers people were pouring forth. If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom, an inner freedom first and later the miracle of being released during a war in which the regime had no real incentive to free us. It didn’t make sense, but faith did. 

Letter from the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon

Another Catholic Genocide

While we look upon a genocide of our Catholic and non-Catholic brethren of Iraq and Syria, let us look back for a few minutes at another genocide--the first really of modern times and one committed by those of the same blood. Like England, one day France will have to come to terms with the horror which it committed upon its own citizens.

The Freemasons of France outdid England, but England has no reason to be praised.

May the English Martyrs and the Martyrs of Vendee intercede. 

Vendée French call for revolution massacre 

to be termed 'genocide'

It was one of the most infamous episodes of the bloody French Revolution.

By Henry Samuel in Paris

1:25PM GMT 26 Dec 2008

In early 1794 – at the height of the Reign   of Terror – French soldiers marched to the Atlantic Vendée, where peasants had risen up against the Revolutionary government in Paris.

Twelve "infernal columns" commanded by General Louis-Marie Turreau were ordered to kill everyone and everything they saw.

Thousands of people – including women and children – were massacred in cold blood, and farms and villages torched.

In the city of Nantes, the Revolutionary commander Jean-Baptiste Carrier disposed of Vendéean prisoners-of-war in a horrifically

efficient form of mass execution. In the so-called "noyades" –mass drownings – naked men, women, and children were tied together in

specially constructed boats, towed out to the middle of the river Loire and then sunk.

Now Vendée, a coastal department in western France, is calling for the incident to be remembered as the first genocide in modern

history.Residents claim the massacre has been downplayed so as not to sully the story of the French Revolution.

Historians believe that around 170,000 Vendéeans were killed in the peasant war and the subsequent massacres – and around 5,000

in the noyades.

When it was over, French General Francois Joseph Westermann penned a letter to the Committee of Public Safety stating: "There is no

more Vendée... According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at

least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all.”

Two centuries on, growing calls from local politicians to have it declared a "genocide" have sparked intellectual debate.

"There was in the Revolution a clearly stated programme to wipe out the Vendéean race," said Philippe de Villiers, European deputy and

former presidential candidate for the right-wing traditionalist Movement for France (MPF) party.

"Why did it take place? Because a people was chosen to be liquidated on account of their religious faith. Today we demand a law officially

declaring it as a genocide; we demand a statement from the president; and recognition by the United Nations."

Mr de Villiers – who opposes Turkish entry into the EU – was in Armenia last month, where he compared the Vendée of 1794 to the 1915

massacres of Armenians. In neither case, he said, "have the perpetrators admitted their fault or asked forgiveness of the victims".

The bloody events of the Vendée were long absent from French history books, because of the evil light they shed on the Revolutionaries.

However, they were well known in the Soviet bloc. Lenin himself had studied the war there and drew inspiration for his policies towards the peasantry.

According to the historian Alain Gérard, of the Vendéean Centre for Historical Research, "In other parts of France the revolutionaries killed the

nobles or the rich bourgeoisie. But in Vendée they killed the people.

"It was the Revolution turning against the very people from whom it claimed legitimacy. It proved the faithlessness of the Revolution to its own

principles. That's why it was wiped out of the historical memory," he said.

While today nobody denies that massacres took place, some historians argue they cannot be called "genocide" as there were excesses on

both sides in what was a civil war, and they do not fit the UN criteria of killings based on ethnic or religious identity. "The Vendéeans were no more

blameless than were the republicans. The use of the word genocide is wholly inaccurate and inappropriate," said Timothy Tackett of the University of

California.

For Mr. Gérard, the massacres were clearly "a deliberate policy on the part of the authorities". For Mr. de Villiers, an aristocrat whose family seat

is in the Vendée, genocide does indeed apply as his forebears were killed for religious reasons: they had rebelled to protect their priests, who refused

to swear an oath to the new constitution.

"It's the rare case of a people rising up for religious reasons. They did not rebel because they were hungry, but because their priests were being

killed," he said.

"It is my burden – and my great honour – to defend the Vendée to the end of my days. The Vendée is not just a province of France, it is a province

of the spirit. If today we enjoy the freedom to worship the way we choose, it is largely down to the sacrifice of those who died here."

The grave for Gravel

Raymond Gravel is dead.

The former male same-sex prostitute entered the priesthood with improper formation within one year of meeting the then bishop of Joliet. He became a Member of Parliament until ordered by the Church, in spite of his bishop, to make a choice, politics or priesthood.  

Raymond Gravel undermined church teaching during his priesthood. In death, as in life, he is lionised by the secular media for his dissent. There is no need to list his betrayal of the Bride of Christ here but questions about Gravel have been asked for decades and they persist. The bishops of Joliet have been complicit in the scandal of this man.

He chose to go so far as to sue LifeSiteNews in an attempt to break-him and the funding for this came from no less than six religious orders or houses in Quebec.

My sources tell me that his wish is for the lawsuit to continue beyond the grave.

May God have mercy on the soul of this priest.

Truer words were rarely spoken

'I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.[1] It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor.[2] The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between - as they were called - three "Laws" or "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an. It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point - itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole - which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason", I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation (διάλεξις - controversy) edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to some of the experts, this is probably one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness that we find unacceptable, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”[3] The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...

From the Regensburg Address of Benedict XVI, Pope

Who is this little girl?

Nota bene: for those in the combox who have stated that this photo is somehow to be excused please note this:

The photo was published on twitter by a Muslim user (@Fadel_alHadidi) and profess to be an ISIS militant marrying a 7-year old kafir in occupied minority district of either Mosul or Syria (source and image is unconfirmed). When a forced conversion takes place, the victim is  first be forced to recite the Quran to make the pedo-marriage halal according to Sharia law.

Who is this little seven-year old girl. The best we know is that she has been kidnapped from her family. No doubt, this sweet little child has already been raped and defiled by the evil bearded bastard.

How did this happen?

The blood of these victims is on the hands of many of our leaders.

Satan will not prevail.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who said to the little children to come to you, please comfort and take to you this little child and ease her suffering that she may be free from this evil. Amen.

Mother Mary, look down upon these suffering souls and intercede for them.

God help them. 

God forgive us.

Who is this little girl? 

Catholic Genocide!

The great fault now lies with America. Having gone in to unseat the despot (who, like Tito, managed to keep the factions from creating the genocide we now see and saw in Yugoslavia), its President lost the peace by abandoning the country long before it was able to stand on its own.

The blood is dripping from the hand of Barrack Hussein Obama. The blood of 3000 American solidiers, the blood of a million Iraqis and now the blood of these Christians. It is Barrack Hussein Obama who has caused this. 

The people ask "where is the Pope?" He goes to Korea!

Slaughter of the Innocents 2014 Version - CAUTION GRAPHIC

WE CAN NOT BE SILENT ANY LONGER!

http://www.catholic.org/news/international/middle_east/story.php?id=56339

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/08/06/idesk-iraq-christians-persecuted-mark-arabo-intv.cnn.html

An Urgent Letter of the Chaldean Patriarch

Courtesy of our good friends at Rorate Caeli blog.

AN URGENT LETTER OF THE CHALDEAN PATRIARCH

August 5, 2014

Your Holiness Pope Francis

Your Beatitudes the Patriarchs of the East

Your Excellencies the Presidents of the Bishops' Conferences

The Christians of Iraq face an enormous tragedy

The Christians of Mosul (Nineveh Province, Iraq), horrified, have fled the city with only the clothes they were wearing. Their churches have been profaned and on August 2, a mass migration took place from the villages of Telkev, Batnaya and Telleskuf as, knowing that the small town of Sinjar alongside other neighboring villages had fallen and seventy persons had been massacred, gave rise to panic. There, on Monday, August 4, ISIL commenced the bombardment the village of Telkef and a young Christian was killed. This having been said it is evident that there is practically no collaboration between the central government and that of the Kurdish Region and in addition to that the new government is not yet formed!

As for our political parties, they have failed in every tangible manner, and this for reasons well known to everyone as well as to each of these parties themselves.

As for the Church, she finds herself completely alone, more than ever; nevertheless her leaders are strongly required to react before it is too late in applying the necessary pressure on the international community as well as those other decision-makers in view of fundamental answers necessary to the scandalous crimes and the destructive conspiracies that affect, above all, unarmed citizens in Iraq, Syria, and in Palestine - Gaza.

It should be noted that the motivation for all of these killings is the lust for everything that lies beneath the earth like oil and gas ... what else explains this war so curiously radicalised and, as if following an excellently premeditated plan, does not take the least account of the destinies of the people.

We are equally shocked and indignant with the absence of a vigorous position taken by Muslims and their religious leaders, not the least because the actions of these factions represent a menace for the Muslims themselves.

In fact, speeches are good for nothing, so too declarations that rehash condemnations and indignation; the same can be said for protest marches. In addition, while appreciating the generosity of our donors, we would say that donations and fundraising too are not what will solve our problems. We have to demand a large-scale administrative [governmental] operation on an international level. There is in fact the need for a position of conscience regarding this simple human principle: the demand for real actions and solidarity because we are before a crisis related to our very existence, confronting the fact that "we will be or we will not be".

This is an appeal from the bottom of the heart in the search for a solution that lies uniquely in the hands of the international community and above all with the great powers. We address ourselves profoundly to their consciences and that they should review their positions and to re-evaluate the impact of the situation of today.

These powers confront a human and moral responsibility. It is no longer reasonable to take recourse to double standards. They are called to free themselves from their narrow interests and to unite themselves in a political and peacekeeping solution that puts an end to this conflict. These powers must vigorously exercise pressure on those who support financially and train militarily these factions and so cut short these sources of violence and radicalisation.

Concerning the Christians of Iraq, in our pastoral ministry towards them, we also call upon the international community: our Christians are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, as too they are in need of an efficient, true and permanent protection that reassures them that there is no end to their existence whose origins are so deeply rooted in Iraq; this also concerns Christians in other regions of the Middle East that are burning and being torn apart.

We also appeal to our brothers and sisters around the world, that they too be truly with us in solidarity at this our time of suffering this terrible ordeal; that they live with us this feeling of solidarity as if belonging to the same family.

We are in need of a communion of the heart, and for prayers with our faithful during this terrible ordeal as we experienced during the visit of the delegation of Bishops of France presided by His Eminence Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon.

We remain believing in dialogue, exchange and conviviality.

That God may grant us the grace and possibility to overcome this trial, that He remove from all hearts all hatred and violence.

In great union of prayer,

Louis Raphael I Sako

Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans

[French original text; translation provided by the Patriarchate, adapted where necessary.]

[Note: following this letter, this Wednesday, the Christian capital of Northern Iraq, Qaraqosh or Bakhdida, suffered the first attacks of Islamist forces, with three Christians already killed.]