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Baghdad, Iraq, Jul 14, 2009 / 03:21 am (CNA).- More than 40 people were killed or injured in renewed attacks on Christians in Baghdad on Sunday.Shortly after 7:00 on Sunday evening, a car bomb exploded in front of the gates of St. Mary’s Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad. The explosion occurred just as churchgoers left Mass.Seven were killed and around 30 were injured, with 18 requiring hospital treatment, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reports.Bombs reportedly went off at three other Baghdad churches around 4:30 pm, two of which were St. George’s Church in the Al-Ghadier section and St....

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Fr Saad Hanna Sirop, the Chaldean Catholic priest freed Monday evening after 27 days in captivity, “was threatened and tortured”, another Iraqi priest, a fellow student, told AsiaNews. “He is really tired and exhausted. He was threatened and tortured. He’ll be able to talk about his painful and fearful experiences later.”Father Saad was preparing to leave for Rome when he was kidnapped. He was coming to receive his university diploma after he obtained his theology degree three years ago at the Pontifical Urbaniana University.“He is free and now is doing well. This is the only thing that...

Beirut, Lebanon -- Christians continue to flee Iraq because of religious persecution, even as some Iraqi church leaders are calling on their compatriots to return home. The church leaders fear that Iraq will become emptied of Christians if the mass exodus continues, leading some of them to issue calls to return that have angered refugees. "The Muslims of Daura are calling on Christians to come back," the Chaldean bishop of Baghdad, Monsignor Andraos Abouna, told Newsmax in an exclusive interview in Beirut this week. The Daura neighborhood of Baghdad has been the scene of mass persecution of Christians since the...

Hear the voice of a Christian Martyr singing a hymn in Arabic to the Blessed Mother, while watching a slideshow of his funeral mass. Hear the angelic voice of Father Ragheed Ganni, a 35 year old Chaldean Catholic Priest killed on Sunday June 3rd, 2007 with three of his deacons right after celebrating mass at Holy Spirit Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq. The car of Father Ragheed and the three deacons was stopped by terrorists shortly after leaving the church. They were forced to get down from the car and asked to declare their conversion to Islam. When the...

The Plight of Christians in Iraq   By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Frontpage Interview’s guest today is William J. Murray, the chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition in Washington, DC. During the early 1980's, he served as director of Freedom's Friends, an organization which reached out to the victims of communism worldwide. In the 1990's, he founded the first commercial Bible publishing company in the Soviet Union. For many years his organizations operated evangelistic tours to the Soviet Union for Christians. From his office in Washington, D.C., Mr. Murray continues to work for the rights of Christians...

Thousands of Christians have fled Iraq's second-largest city after a dozen people were murdered in the worst week of violence against the faithful since the US-led invasion. Around 4,000 Christians have escaped Mosul in northern Iraq to neighbouring villages, creating a potential humanitarian nightmare as winter approaches. Many left without any possessions after receiving written threats, and militants blew up at least three Christian homes after chasing out the owners. The Iraqi government has sent 2,500 additional police to the city to protect churches. The refugees now face a bleak winter without any food or shelter in what aid workers...

(AINA) -- A Christian bishop received a threatening letter written by Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Muslim group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq. The letter ordered the Christians to leave Iraq en masse and stated it is sending a final warning to Christians in Baghdad and other Iraqi governorates to leave Iraq permanently.

ISTANBUL, November 14 (Compass Direct News) – In this Turkish city’s working-class neighborhood of Kurtulus, Arabic can be heard on the streets, signs are printed in the Arabic alphabet and Iraqis congregate in tea shops. In 99-percent Muslim Turkey, most of these Iraqis are not Muslims. And they are not in Turkey by choice. They are Christian refugees who fled their homeland to escape the murderous violence that increasingly has been directed at them. It is hard to tell how many of Mosul’s refugees from the recent wave of attacks have made their way to Istanbul, but finding these residents...

CWN.org - Iraqi Christians are protesting the parliament's decision to stop seating minorities on the country's 18 provincial councils. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sent a letter to lawmakers appealing to them to restore the quota system for all minorities. Hundreds of Christians protested in the streets following church services Sunday. Militants have targeted Christians since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The violence has forced many Christians to flee the country. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International told CBN News that parliament's action will probably cause more to leave. "It sends a clear message that really we don't want you here,"...

In Iraq, the persecution of Christians continues, as murders and a mass exodus contradict Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's promise of security for everyone. Churches are trying to help the refugees, and some may come to Germany -- if the government settles on a plan. The long trip from Mosul to Baghdad traverses a bombed highway along the Tigris River, through a wasteland in central Iraq left behind by five years of war. For Rami Kamil, 43, his wife and their children, the journey was an escape from the growing prospect of being murdered in Mosul. Last Tuesday, at 6 a.m.,...

Iraq Christians face 'bleak future' Story Highlights: · Iraq's Christians face killings, intimidation; many have fled to other countries · Community has decreased from 1.4 million in 2003 to half that · One expert sees diversity decreasing, fears Muslim extremist majority in Iraq · Christians in Iraq face "horrible situation," says U.S. congresswoman By Joe Sterling CNN (CNN) -- It's a bittersweet Christmas season for Joseph Kassab, who grew up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and now lives in Detroit, Michigan. Tempering the season's joy is his concern for fellow Iraqi Christians, who have endured killings, displacement and...

Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk said in an interview with the L’Osservatore Romano this week that the situation in Iraq “is quite good and this means refugees could return to their homes. There are hundreds of empty and abandoned rooms and tents that await the return of Christians...”

MOSUL (Reuters) -- Gunmen have killed two Christian sisters and wounded their mother in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which has seen thousands of Christians flee their homes because of violence in recent weeks, police said. Some 2,000 families, an estimated 12,000 people, fled Mosul after a campaign of threats and attacks against the Christian community last month, although many have since returned home, the United Nations refugee agency says. In the latest incident, gunmen killed one woman outside her home, then stormed the house, killing her sister and wounding their mother.

TEL ASQUF - With Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, Iraq's first Christian militia enforces one simple rule on the border of this little village. "Anyone not from Tel Asquf, is banned." This village in northern Iraq's flashpoint Nineveh province, frequently targeted by Sunni and Shiite fighters, has now taken security into its own hands with armed patrols and checkpoints at the village's four entrances. The village borders are marked with a sand barrier built by residents in a bid to stop car bombs breaching the perimeter as they did in 2007 when two such attacks within six months rocked the...

BAGHDAD — Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, political and religious officials said Saturday. Some 3,000 Christians have fled the city over the past week alone in a "major displacement," said Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, the governor of northern Iraq's Ninevah province. He said most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns. "The Christians were subjected to abduction attempts and paid ransom, but now they are subjected to a...

Two Christian sisters were shot dead and their mother stabbed by a Muslim mob just one day after it was reported that Iraqi Christians were returning to their homes in Mosul after fleeing Muslim persecution about one month ago.

Could the tide of violence against Christians in Iraq be turning? Hopeful news from Baghdad: Three years ago, a note appeared at Lita Kaseer's door. It contained a bullet and a one-word message: "Leave."Kaseer fled, along with hundreds of other Christian families in the Dora neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, once a vibrant Christian community.This year, she returned home from Syria, and on Thursday, attended Christmas Mass with her husband and 7-month-old son."It's always better to come home," said her husband, Khalid Kamil, 34. "In any other place, you are a stranger. . . . This is not the way our...

BAGHDAD - An Assyrian Orthodox priest was killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Baghdad, police and an assistant said, the latest attack against Iraq's Christian minority. The priest, Youssef Adel, was shot by gunmen who drove up in a car and opened fire as he was opening the gate of his house near the St. Peter and Paul church where he presided, an assistant said. Christians have frequently been caught up in the violence or been targeted in this predominantly Muslim country. The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, one of Iraq's most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics, was found...

The body of a kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found in northern Iraq on Thursday, sparking outrage from Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and other world leaders and expression of sadness from Pope Benedict XVI. “Yes, we found his body,” Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP, speaking of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho. A report from Rome had said that the body of Rahho was found in a shallow grave near Mosul after abductors telephoned the auxiliary archbishop of Baghdad, Shlemon Warduni. Rahho, 65, was kidnapped on February 29 after a shootout in which three of...

The Chaldean community around the world stand numb and in disbelief as news of Archbishop Bishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul is dead.

With the growing outcry from heads of State and international leaders, why has there not been even one formal statement from the United States President or Administration? Why have none of the Presidential candidates even mentioned the Archbishop of Mosul? We cannot, we must not, remain silent any longer.

Madrid, Mar 3, 2008 / 02:29 pm (CNA).- The Mensajeros de la Paz (Messengers of Peace) foundation is reporting that the captors of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul are demanding $1.8 million in ransom money to free the Iraqi prelate who was kidnapped last Friday.In comments to Italian Bishops’ news service Servizio Informazione Religiosa (SIR), Bishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk said that, "The kidnappers have called more than once asking for ransom." The president and founder of Mensajeros de la Paz, Father Angel Garcia, expressed his hope that the captors would relent and “for humanitarian reasons release the Archbishop...

The assault against Catholics in Iraq has continued, and sadly, is escalating....We call on President Bush and the current American administration to do everything within their power to secure the release of Archbishop Rahho.

Baghdad, Jan 10, 2008 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- New fears of an organized campaign to flush Christianity out of Iraq have been sparked by the recent attacks on churches in leading Iraqi cities. Concerns about a new "religious-cleansing" drive were raised by sources close to the Church reeling from Sunday's (January 6) coordinated bomb-blasts on at least six church buildings in Mosul and Baghdad. Iraqi Church sources, who requested anonymity out of concern for their safety, told the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), that while only one person was injured by the bomb attacks, the...

Thousands of Iraqi Christians made their way to church through checkpoints and streets lined with blast walls, many drawing hope from a lull in violence to celebrate Christmas Mass in numbers unthinkable a year ago. "We did not celebrate last year, but this year we have security and we feel better," said Rasha Ghaban, one of many women at the small Church of the Holy Family in Karradah... Families streamed into the church's courtyard, wrapped in heavy winter jackets to protect them from the early morning chill. Young children with neatly combed hair held their parents' hands, and women stopped...

Yesterday, after I left my prefabricated hut in Baghdad's heavily fortified International Zone and made the journey of just one mile to St George's, the city's Anglican Church, I was greeted by more than 150 excited children. "Abouna, Abouna," they cried, using the Arabic word for "Father". "This year we are going to have the best Christmas ever!" I have to be escorted to my church by Iraqi Special Forces in armoured cars. As I took off my bulletproof clothes, I thought about the children's optimism. St George's is still surrounded by razor wire and barricades to deflect bomb blasts....

AIN TAMUR, Iraq (AFP) - No-one celebrated Christmas in Al-Aqiser church on Tuesday, for what many consider to be the oldest eastern Christian house of worship lies in ruins in a windswept Iraqi desert. ADVERTISEMENT Armed bandits and looters rule in the region and no one can visit the southern desert around Ain Tamur unescorted, local officials say. But 1,500 years ago, the first eastern Christians knelt and prayed in this barren land, their faces turned towards Jerusalem. The remains of Al-Aqiser church lie in the windswept sand dunes of Ain Tamur, around 70 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of the...

Thousands of Iraqi Christians picked their way through checkpoints and along dusty streets lined with concrete blast walls, packing churches in Baghdad on Tuesday for Christmas Day services. "We did not celebrate last year, but this year we have security and we feel better," said Rasha Ghaban, one of many women at the small Church of the Holy Family in Karradah, a mainly Shiite district in downtown Baghdad where many Christians live. "We hope our future will be better, God willing." A car bomb shattered the Christmas peace in the northern city of Beiji, killing at least 22 people, while...

Following years of persecution and not being able to attend Mass because of the threat of terrorism, Huzni Hermez and his family left their war-torn homeland of Iraq and found a place where they could freely practice their Catholic faith. With the cooperation of St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church in Springfield, Springfield-based Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts and the Diocese of Springfield, Hermez and his family -- including wife Muntha Sooloka; children Yusif Yusuf, 6, Raymon Yusuf, 4, and Eleana Yusuf, 3; and Hermez's mother, Sarra Khoshaba -- arrived in Springfield Nov. 15. They are Chaldean Catholics, members of...

TEENA, Iraq -- Something seems out of place in the little village in the valley. First, there are the low-slung homes with the pastel exteriors -- yellows and pinks -- that scream for attention against the rugged backdrop of pine trees and mountain peaks. Then, up on the hill, sits the church with the squat steeple. But it's the cross reaching toward the magnificent blue sky that really stands out in this predominantly Muslim region and country. The Assyrian Catholic Church serves 32 families who fled the violence of Baghdad for the relative calm and security of Kurdistan here in...

Fathers Pius Affas and Mazen Ishoa Mosul, Oct 22, 2007 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Two Catholic priests kidnapped more than a week ago in Mosul have been released and are in good health, the Agence France-Presse reports. Fathers Pius Affas and Mazen Ishoa were kidnapped last Saturday after receiving threats from an unknown group.  They were reportedly held for a ransom of one million U.S. dollars, but it is unknown at present whether one was paid.According to the Rome-based missionary agency Middle East Concern, Syro-Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa was in charge of negotiating the release of the priests.Pope...

Three dozen members of one Christian church in Iraq disappeared over the course of a week, and only one returned, according to a minister who is warning of the increase of persecution of Christians in that violence-ridden nation. The warning from Rev. Canon Andrew White is being reported by Voice of the Martyrs, the ministry to persecuted Christians around the world. VOM cited an interview with White on CBNNews.com in which the Anglican minister from Baghdad was describing the conditions for Iraqi Christians for a committee on religious freedom. He said kidnappings, torture and executions of Christians are rising....

We rolled into Forward Operating Base, Rivera, the center of operations for 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in the town of Saqlawiyah.  The Civil Affairs Group and the 2/7 chaplain were transporting me so that I could make Catholic Sacramental and Pastoral visits to all their Battle Positions.There is no separate space to set apart for Mass or a religious service, so I set up in the area where they eat and recreate which is also used as the triage area for the wounded. Foot patrols were returning after an eight hour shift through the night and others were departing...

Rome, Jul 26, 2007 / 10:20 am (CNA).- The Iraqi ambassador to the Holy See, Albert Edward Ismail Yelda, said this week Christians in the that country “are the seeds of the land of Mesopotamia, and I don’t think there is a force on this earth strong enough to eradicate them.” In an interview with the SIR news agency, Yelda spoke of the persecution of Christians in Iraq, “which the Holy See follows with particular concern.”  He condemned “all of the atrocities committed against Christians in Iraq and other minorities by radical and extremist groups in collusion with and sustained...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Blind fanaticism is reaching unprecedented heights in this capital city, and for the Christians who live here and throughout Iraq it is turning into a nightmare.Persecution against Christians is being unleashed in many cities and neighborhoods where Christians and Muslims coexisted peacefully, if somewhat coldly, some years ago. In fact, the patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Archbishop Emmanuel III Delly, called it “open persecution, as in the early centuries of the Church.”In Baghdad, especially in the neighborhood where Christians have their main Church buildings, the structures are being bombed, desecrated and looted, crosses torn down...

Christians are facing renewed era of martyrdom, Vatican nuncio tells U.N. 7/3/2007 Catholic OnlineGENEVA, Switzerland (Catholic Online) – Christians are confronted with a renewed era of martyrdom in the Middle East requiring immediate international action of burden sharing to alleviate the problem of refugee resettlement and religious cleansing there, said a Vatican official to a United Nations body.In a June 25 intervention to the standing committee of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released July 2, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Vatican representative to U.N. agencies and other international organizations here, also pointed to the increasing global...

Vatican-endorsed protest urges end to alleged persecution of Mideast ChristiansBy The Canadian Press Wednesday, July 4, 2007 ROME (AP) - Several hundred people rallied Wednesday in Rome to demand an end to what they said is persecution of Christians in the Middle East that has forced thousands to flee the region. The demonstration was the brainchild of Magdi Allam, Italy’s leading Islamic commentator. It was endorsed by several top Vatican officials and follows recent comments by Pope Benedict. "We cannot remain silent before a tragedy that affects millions of people," Allam told the crowd gathered in a central Rome...

DETROIT, Mich. (CNS) – U.S. troops should withdraw and let Iraqi factions fight it out, the bishop for most Iraqi Catholics in the United States said June 19. "Let the Iraqis kill each other, but let the occupying power get out, because they are not killing each other because they are Sunni or Shiite, but because they are with the Americans or against the Americans," said Chaldean Catholic Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim. The head of the Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle made the comments in an impassioned sermon at a special Mass at Mother of God (Chaldean) Cathedral in...

Iraqi Christians experience 'authentic martyrdom,' Pope Benedict saysBy Cindy Wooden6/21/2007Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Christians of Iraq are experiencing an "authentic martyrdom" and must be supported materially and spiritually by the entire Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Peace, so long implored and awaited, unfortunately is still largely being offended," the pope said in a June 21 speech to representatives of the Catholic communities in the Middle East and to Catholic aid agencies that assist them. In "vast areas" of the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories, "interpersonal and communal relationships" are being...

Christians living in Gaza City on Monday appealed to the international community to protect them against increased attacks by Muslim extremists. Many Christians said they were prepared to leave the Gaza Strip as soon as the border crossings are reopened. The appeal came following a series of attacks on a Christian school and church in Gaza City over the past few days. Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in the Gaza Strip, said masked gunmen torched and looted the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church. "The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances...

Baghdad, Jun 12, 2007 / 10:46 am (CNA).- The Religious Information Service of the Church in Italy reported this week that Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad Shlemon Warduni scolded the United States and Europe for their “silence” in the face of the escalating violence against the Christian minority in Iraq. Bishop Warduni pointed to the recent assassination of a Catholic priest, Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, and three deacons in northern Iraq, carried out a week ago as they were coming out of a church, and to the kidnapping of Father Hani Abdel Ahad, 33, who has not been heard from since...

In deciding what to write for Corpus Christi Sunday, I concluded that nothing could improve on these words of Father Ragheed Ganni.“Mosul (Iraq) Christians are not theologians; some are even illiterate. And yet inside of us for many generations one truth has become embedded: Without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live.“This is true today when evil has reached the point of destroying churches and killing Christians, something unheard of in Iraq till now. On June 2004 of last year, a group of young women was cleaning the church to get it ready for Sunday service. “My sister Raghad, who is...

» 06/09/2007 10:14 IRAQThe killers of Fr. Ragheed and the three deacons wanted their conversion to Islam New details emerge surrounding the assassination of the Chaldean priest and his three friends in Mosul. Sunni Islam’s highest authority in Iraq condemns the attacks against the Christians and lays “all blame at the door of the Government and occupying forces”. The Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See on the Nineveh Plain project “we work to build greater unity, not barriers”. Mosul (AsiaNews) – Before opening fire on Fr. Raghhed Gani and his three deacons, the killers demanded their conversion to Islam.  These...

The mainstream media can't get enough of the sectarian violence between the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds in Iraq. But one kind of sectarian violence that has consistently been under-reported since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the persecution of Iraq's native Christian population. A Catholic News Agency story from June 6th reported: According to the AINA news agency, two churches were attacked in the Baghdad district of Dora. At St. John the Baptist's in Hay Al-Athoriyeen, several security guards who protect the church were killed, and St. Jacob's in Hay al Asya was vandalized and forcibly...

Chaldean clergyman, Father Hani, and one of the five boys accompanying him on a visit to a minor seminar in the capital are still being held but negotiations are underway to free them. Released prisoners are said to be in good conditions. Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Four of five Christian boys abducted yesterday with Chaldean priest Fr Hani Abdel Ahad were released today in good physical conditions. Sources told AsiaNews that the 33-year-old priest and the fifth boy are still in the hands of the kidnappers. All six were on their way to the minor seminar in Suleikh, in one of...

ROME, JUNE 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of a letter written posthumously to Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni by a Muslim friend of his who is a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Father Ragheed and three deacons were shot and killed in Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday after Mass. * * * In the name of the compassionate and merciful God, Ragheed, my brother, I ask your forgiveness for not being with you when those criminals opened fire against you and your brothers. The bullets that have gone through your pure and innocent body have also gone through...

CNA).- On the same day as Father Ragheed Ganni’s funeral, Muslim fundamentalists sent another message of hatred to Catholics, this time attacking two churches in Iraq. Fr. Ragheed, along with three deacons were killed just this past Sunday after they had finished celebrating Mass. According to the AINA news agency, two churches were attacked in the Baghdad district of Dora.  At St. John the Baptist’s in Hay Al-Athoriyeen, several security guards who protect the church were killed, and St. Jacob’s in Hay al Asya was vandalized and forcibly turned into a mosque.  St. Jacob’s had previously been attacked in October...