CPTnet
December 28, 2004

IRAQ: "How can I do this?"

by Doug Pritchard

The large Chaldean Catholic church stood in a deserted
yard. The road beside it was lined with razor wire,
quiet and empty, in the pale morning light.

Sheila Provencher and I crossed the road, passed
through the walls to the church door, and were met by
the young priest, who immediately burst into laughter.
"I did not know you--Sheila, with that old coat and
headscarf; you, sir, with that long white beard and
prayer cap. I thought it was a Muslim woman coming to
our church to pray to Mary for a child as they
sometimes do. But why would she come with her
husband?"

In his study, he showed us his machine gun and the
ski-mask he wears when he sometimes joins the three
armed men guarding the church. "This is an abnormal
situation--you, in disguise;a priest with a gun. How
can I do this?" His congregation has not worshipped in
its church building since Aug. 1, 2004, when four
other Baghdad churches were bombed simultaneously
during Sunday evening worship.
Christian education classes at his church have also been suspended.

The congregation meets at a rented hall nearby. The
priest tells his congregation, "The people are more
important than the mass. I can't replace one of you if you are killed."

He said that security is the first priority for
everyone. "The rich have left for now, the middle
class are trying to be invisible, and the poor -- what
can they do? We go to bed at 7 p.m. because there is
no electricity. When we wake, we check to see if
everyone is alive. Then we phone our relatives to see
if they are alive. But this is not just a Christian
problem. Mosques are also attacked, and the
Muslim people are suffering too."

Yet he remains optimistic about the future. "A
minority is making trouble, but someday they will
finish." He noted that the Christian community is much
more ecumenical now. Chaldeans, Nestorians, Orthodox,
and Roman Catholic intermarry and worship together. He
himself has good relations with Muslim clerics in the
neighbourhood. Everyone is free to speak, unlike under
Saddam's regime. He said, "We do not want to become
like Iran or Kuwait where there is only one way."

About the upcoming election, he is also hopeful.
Although democratization "will take many years," and
the election may only be "70 percent fair," still, "it
starts to open a window."

He said there is an old Arabic saying: "Books are
written in Egypt, printed in Lebanon, but they are
only read in Iraq." And so he believes that, "The
future will be Iraq's again."