Blood still smeared the walls of Our Lady of Salvation Church on Monday. Scraps of flesh remained between the pews. It was the worst massacre of Iraqi Christians since the war began here in 2003.
But for survivors, the tragedy went deeper than the toll of the human wreckage: A fusillade of grenades, bullets and suicide vests had unraveled yet another thread of the country’s once eclectic fabric.
“We’ve lost part of our soul now,” said Rudy Khalid, a 16-year-old Christian who lived across the street. He shook his head. “Our destiny, no one knows what to say of it.”
This attack hit a congregation hard that meets every Sunday for Mass at the church where I am pastor here in London. They are Syrian Catholics – in fact Iraqis, Catholic (in communion with the Pope) and following the ancient Syriac liturgy. Many of them speak Aramaic as well as Arabic and English. They are therefore the same group as those who were attacked at Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. Some of them have lost members of their immediate family. Their grief is very real, but also their sense of powerlessness. Who will help them? What, in secular terms, is there to hope for? The rest of the world is by and large indifferent. And as the NYT article notes, nobody even in Iraq itself has any idea what to do.
It is difficult also for a Christian to know how to respond when faced with such hatred. I weary of the endless politically correct kowtowing to Muslims – witness the recent flap in the US about Juan Williams – and especially I weary about the endless cries of Islamophobia when the most persecuted religion on earth is Christianity. Still, we follow a Lord who said: ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you’ (Matthew 5.11-12). Still I do also wonder what it can mean to be a witness for reconciliation when faced with such hatred. And I wonder, too, when the Muslim people themselves are going to stand up in great numbers and say: Enough of this madness committed in our name.
1, you stated my frustration much better than I could. But I have learned that the world will stand by and ignore the most terrible of genocides.
“And I wonder, too, when the Muslim people themselves are going to stand up in great numbers and say: Enough of this madness committed in our name.” Terry Tee this is probably not going to happen but is the only way that radical Muslims will be stopped. In my opinion it is the only chance for peace however slim it may be.
Thanks, Fr. Tee, for that poignant post. I didn’t realize your church in London also offers a haven to believers from that long forgotten and ignored Syrian Catholic tradition, presumably some of whom are recent refugees from Iraq. It’s so sad that Christians are being driven out of so much of the Middle East.
A gruesome, inexcusable terrorist attack like this is an attack on all Christians everywhere, no matter what language they speak, which rite they use, or what ecclesial tradition they uphold.
David Handy
Father Tee,
Thank you for putting a personal face on this tragedy.