Reportage / Religion 02.05.2023

Time for impact assessment

On Tuesday 31 January 2023, the country is in turmoil. Pope Francis has arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first stage of his African tour. All the institutions of the republic, the opposition, civil society and pressure groups…

Akilimali Saleh Chomachoma

On Tuesday 31 January 2023, the country is in turmoil. Pope Francis has arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first stage of his African tour. All the institutions of the republic, the opposition, civil society and pressure groups converged at Kinshasa’s Ndolo international airport, where the papal mass was held. Thousands of Catholic faithful were also present. On average, more than one million people joined in. Two months on, opinions differ on Pope Francis’ visit to the DRC

Insecurity in the East of the country

Pope Francis’ visit to the DR Congo has put a forgotten war on the world stage. National opinion in the DRC is that the Congo war has been forgotten by everyone and that the international community is not offering the necessary support to end it. The pontiff is therefore a very good way of drawing the attention of the other peoples of the world to the drama that is taking place in Congo. “The Congolese people, wounded by the recurrent insecurity, the multiform violations of human rights, the massive displacement of populations, especially in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, welcomed the Pope as a Consoler” Abbé Georges KALENGA, second Deputy General Secretary of CENCO

The Pope saw the victims of the war but did not go to Goma, in the east of the DRC and the heart of all the violence. This is something that Placide Nzilamba, technical secretary of civil society in North Kivu province, said. “The Pope should be going here to Goma but it is Rwanda with the M23 that has brandished terrorist threats, has taken over the localities just a few metres from where he should be holding his mass. Everything has been done so that the Pope does not see the reality on the ground,” he denounced in InsdeOver. A thesis that seems to convince also the Abbot Georges KALENGA who indicates that “the pullers of the strings of the insecurity that prevails in the East of the DR Congo wanted to prevent him by reviving the insecurity in North Kivu in Ituri while the first program provided as a place of visit Kinshasa, the capital, the city of Goma, and even Beni in the very first scheme. The Pope decided to carry out the apostolic visit to DR Congo, without the stage of Goma, undoubtedly because of insecurity” he said.

Some members of the citizens’ movement regretted the fact that the country did not mention Kigali, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the M23, the rebellion that controls part of the national territory and has repeatedly threatened the city of Goma for several months. “We have raised awareness and our members have had to make banners and banners so that journalists and delegations who come with the Pope can know that the country is under attack. If the Pope would have mentioned Rwanda by name, it would be a good thing, but since he didn’t, it doesn’t matter,” says Marc, an activist from Kinshasa.

But if there is one point on which everyone agrees about the Pope’s visit to the DRC, it is the fact that it is making headlines in the international press.

Take your hands off the Congo!

“Take your hands off the Democratic Republic of Congo, take your hands off Africa! Stop smothering Africa: it is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be robbed. Let the world remember the disasters committed over the centuries to the detriment of the local populations and not forget this country and this continent,” said Pope Francis at Ndolo airport for his mass.

The Pope denounced the factors, including neo-colonialism, which favour the control of the natural resources of the DR Congo. “He called into question the great powers and multinationals that are laying their hands on the wealth and causing insecurity for a systematic plundering of the resources of the Congo. His visit, with its high pastoral and social impact, is a real plea, not only to the Congolese, but also to the international community for a responsible and humane ecology,” says Abbé Georges.

“The Pope used a magic formula. “Take your hands off the DRC”, it is addressed to everyone,” says Bienvenu MATUMO. Bienvenu is an activist of the “Struggle for Change” LUCHA, a citizen’s movement that participates as a pressure group on the country’s issues.

The contrasting socio-political situation

“The Pope’s visit to the DR Congo confirmed the Congolese episcopate in its prophetic mission for the benefit of the population. In fact, the Catholic Church of Congo, through its pastors, the bishops of the 48 Catholic dioceses of the DR Congo, united in the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), accompanies the Congolese state in its quest to be a state of law”, said Abbé Georges.

From the management of public affairs through democratic issues to the fight against the pursuit of personal interests, the Pope used a direct but gentle style to charge the Congolese authorities. 

“Many of you shine in the role you play. Those who hold civil and governmental responsibilities are called to act with crystalline clarity, living the function they have received as a means of serving society. Power is only meaningful if it becomes service. And at the same time, promote free, transparent and credible elections; extend participation in peace processes to women, young people and various groups, to marginalized groups; seek the common good and the security of people rather than personal or group interests; strengthen the presence of the State throughout the territory; take care of the so many displaced persons and refugees”.

Several observers believe that the Pope has not been listened to by the ruling class on the drifts that are observed in the country. 

“Here the Pope said but it is necessary that the structures of the Catholic Church put pressure to achieve the desired changes because the vision of the Pope is not different from that of the CENCO,” says Placide Nzilamba.

Bienvenu Matumo describes an alarming situation in the country on the points raised by the Pope during his visit to the DRC: “The Pope came with a speech of unity, love and forgiveness. But in practice there is mutual detestation for political reasons. When we look at the matters retained in the national assembly, we understand that there is a clear desire to create more division within the Congolese population through the Tshiani law (a law that aims to reserve the highest offices of the state, including the supreme magistracy, only to Congolese born of Congolese father and mother – editor’s note). 

“The year 2023 is a year of expiry of mandates according to the provisions of the Constitution. The Church expects inclusive elections in the sense that the whole population, throughout the national territory, and even Congolese abroad, can participate in the elections without any discrimination,” adds Abbé Georges. 

According to Bienvenu, the Pope has left a great reserve with the archbishop of Kinshasa. “The Church in Congo has always been politically involved in the major issues of the country from Cardinal Malula to Cardinal Ambongo. The Pope’s message has come just to reinforce this social and political role that the Catholic Church does all the time. I am convinced that the church will remobilise to counter the political bodies that do not want to serve the people.

His message “All reconciled in Jesus Christ 

Catholic Christians and the Congolese people received the Holy Father’s message “All reconciled in Jesus Christ” as an invitation to national cohesion. The Pope’s apostolic journey was seen as a favourable moment to give more importance to what makes a nation strong. 

“Faced with so many challenges, the DR Congo, like a wounded man, abandoned to himself, seeks to heal its wounds of corruption, inter-ethnic conflicts, tribalism, insecurity carried by internal armed groups and those from abroad. The Congolese people, in their ethnic, geographical and cultural diversity, are called upon to root themselves in Christ as the vertebrae connect to the spine. The various tribes and ethnic groups that make up the Congolese people are called upon to enrich themselves with their differences and to share what is best in each of them,” says CENCO.

 “It is a message of peace and reconciliation that Pope Francis has come to bring to DR Congo. All his speeches and homilies, with the very rich symbols expressed, were centred around “peace”. He marked out the path to peace.

L'articolo <strong>Time for impact assessment</strong> proviene da InsideOver.

When the world met Pope Francis with the famous “good evening” pronounced from the central gallery of St. Peter’s, Matteo Maria Zuppi was recently auxiliary bishop of Rome for the historic center. Ten years later, the Roman prelate is not only a member of the sacred college and holds a chair formerly occupied by two greats of the Church such as cardinals Giacomo Biffi and Carlo Caffarra, but also presides over the Italian Episcopal Conference. In this interview with the Archbishop of Bologna we have analyzed some of the most characteristic aspects of the current pontificate.

Your Eminence, what impressed you most about that evening of March 13, 2013?

“I remember above all the big surprise of the name. It was an immediately attractive name, because it was used for the first time and then because it represented one of the most evangelical, popular and even creative names. The Holy Father motivated that choice by speaking of the Church of the poor and certainly, calling himself that way, he immediately gave a precise program to his pontificate”.

Did you already know the then Cardinal Bergoglio?

The Community of Sant’Egidio was present in Buenos Aires and I therefore had the opportunity to learn about his activity as archbishop.

A Pope who came from the end of the world but with Italian origins. In these ten years, in your opinion, has a particular pastoral solicitude of Francis manifested itself towards Italy and the Italian Church?

“I would say a lot. I think that one of the most important speeches of Francis was precisely the one made in Florence in 2015 on the occasion of the fifth Italian Ecclesial Convention. I believe that was one of the moments in which he showed his great attention to the Italian Church”.

This pontificate has had to confront more than any other with the power of the media, but also of the web and social media. Can we say that in the narrative of many media there has been a certain tendency to “hide” the most “uncomfortable” statements of the Pope? I am thinking, for example, of the interventions on themes such as the defence of life and the denunciation of ideological colonisation.

“Unfortunately, the mass media sometimes interpret or distort the very meaning of a discourse or use only a part of it. This is always a danger and can become a source of great confusion because complete information is not given. However, it depends a lot on the situations and the newspapers but that there may have been this risk of a partial reading, it is true”

When the Pope spoke years ago of the danger of World War III and rearmament, there were those who thought they were speeches that had become anachronistic with the end of the Cold War. Now that these scenarios have become dramatically topical again, is there not a risk of repeating the same error of underestimation when the Pope invokes peace when speaking of the war in Ukraine?

“Unfortunately, it is true: what seemed to some to be exaggerations turned out to be prophecies. Above all, what he said about the signs of the times and the risks that conflicts bring with them was underestimated. The truth is that we thought we had an infinite time of peace ahead and instead it is not so, we always arrive at a redde rationem. There have been partial readings on the war, but it is clear that the Pope does nothing but seek the path of peace and explain to everyone the complexity of this. And seeking peace is not a shortcut, nor ideological maximalism.”

The lesson of this pontificate on old age? Francis has repeatedly urged us to listen to and attend to the elderly so as not to forget our roots without which we lose our identity. In your opinion, has it managed to convey a message of “usefulness” of the elderly in spite of a society increasingly accustomed to considering them “waste”?

“A lot. He gave centrality to the theme of the elderly, meanwhile warning society against considering them through the lens of the consumer mentality and then reminding themselves that they have a role and inviting them to look ahead, to dream, not to be satisfied. An elder can still give so much to the community. This is why Pope Francis’ speech on old age is very important and it is a lesson from which we still have much to learn”.

The Pope has repeatedly recalled not only that work is dignity, but that just retribution is also dignity. Do you think that the popularity of your magisterium on this point will be sufficient to make people understand the timeliness of the teachings of the Social Doctrine of the Church in contemporary society?

“Of course, Francis has linked the social aspect to spirituality and has thus avoided that risk that he identifies with Pelagianism. He wanted to remind us that the social part is always linked to the spiritual part, otherwise it ends and becomes only the work of men. So he also gave the spiritual a necessary embodied, non-intimistic dimension. Those who say that there is a social insistence of the Pope forget that all this is linked to the proclamation of the Gospel and to holiness itself. A holiness to be understood not in abstract terms, but in life. The Social Doctrine of the Church is connected to Christ and putting it into practice is a way to live spirituality more. The discourse of the link between spirituality and social is fundamental, otherwise we would not understand Pope Francis. On the other hand, he and Benedict XVI wrote it together in the encyclical Lumen Fidei: love needs truth and truth needs love.”

L'articolo Pope Francis, Ten Years Later. A dialogue with Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi proviene da InsideOver.

No Pope has paid so much attention to happiness before Francis. After all, the recent pandemic years have caused many people to forget what it means to be happy. Confined to their homes, some decided that satisfying only the most basic needs is more important.

Yet, Catholic social teaching is not just a way to „be happy”. It is first and foremost a signpost of the way to salvation and a crucial resource for Europe, and the world. John Paul II realized this, producing some of the most powerful social teaching of the 20th century and raising it to the level of moral theology, making it an integral part of the proclamation of the Christian faith in the world. Francis has carried forward his predecessor’s vision, taking us to the social and environmental peripheries of our world and showing, that Christ will meet us anew there.

This new dynamic is possibly the first, though probably not the most important, evolution of the CST in the Francis papacy: the Church’s social teaching has gone beyond the library bookshelves and started circulating among people. The proposal that the Church brings to the world in its social teaching has entered into dialogue with the world, tying the debate between different, often distant, places and points of view.

Solidarity 

The concept of solidarity stands in the center of the social teaching of the last three popes. It could hardly be otherwise, since one of the most important moments in the forging of Catholic social teaching in the previous century was captured with the changes of 1981-1991 and the Polish „Solidarity” movement. Under the Francis papacy, however, the evangelical notion of solidarity is being extended to more areas than just the economy or work.

This stretching of the concept of solidarity can be traced back to John Paul II’s message on World Peace Day in 1990. Peace with God the Creator, peace with all creation. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the current Pope has made a major evolution in CST on this point. Although the 1990 document already emphasized that the environment is of increasing concern to various, often grassroots and spontaneously organized Catholic groups and leaders of the Church at all levels, Francis has devoted the greatest space in his social teaching to covering environmental issues. This change can be summed up by recalling the papal words of March 2021, when the Pope spoke in an empty St Peter’s Square, saying that „we cannot be healthy in a sick world”.

Dialogue

Even if it was Benedict XVI, in his message for the 2008 World Day of Peace, who introduced the concept of the ‘covenant between human beings and the environment’ into the discussion, Francis has made it one of the highlights of his teaching, expressed in his first encyclical, Laudato si’. While in Benedict’s Caritas in veritate, he elaborates on this theme, describing the threefold responsibility that is part of man’s relationship with the environment and pointing to „responsibility for the poor, for future generations and for all humanity”, Francis goes further, saying that this is a part of our „vocation” as human beings, and therefore appropriate human development projects, echoing the previous pontiff, that we „cannot ignore future generations, but must be characterized by solidarity and intergenerational justice”.

The formulation of environmental issues in terms of the covenant — including between generations — has to be acknowledged as a huge step in the transition from a ‘governance model’ to a more updated approach. The new vision of „ecological solidarity”, in a world of multiple crises, when most of the Earth’s seven basic ecosystems are under threat, is one of the most important evolutions, brought about by Francis.

Power 

Globalization is yet another issue, that has come to the fore in Church discussions of social teaching in the last decades. Although, it has received some attention in John Paul II’s Centesimus annus, in regional synods of bishops, and elsewhere, and even if the far-reaching impact of this phenomenon was a major concern of Benedict’s in Caritas in Veritate Francis takes this thinking further with in-depth analysis and clear reflection in the Christus Vivit encyclical and during the Synod of Synodality — his flagship project.

The post-pandemic world raises many new questions. One of them is of the power and the abuse of such, as well as the question of the role of corporations, bigger, and more powerful than many states, and the inquiry of understanding freedom in a world of galloping technological progress. Addressing these questions the Pope turned to during his trip to Congo saying „Hands off Africa!”.

The Church has experience in all these matters. For many millennia it has been the most global structure, reaching out to the world with its experience of connection and mercy. Maybe that’s why the pope smiles so often, showing that a different approach is possible.

Michał Kłosowski

publicist, deputy editor-in-chief of the Polish monthly „Wszystko Co Najważniejsze”, U.S. State Department and Rome’s Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) alumni, author of the book „Pope Francis decade” (2023).

L'articolo <strong>How Pope Francis transformed Catholic Social Teaching and brought it out into the light</strong> proviene da InsideOver.

For the first time in three years, in a few days Easter will be celebrated without health restrictions at the Vatican.

The image of a lonely pope, in the deserted square, in the shadow of a sky full of clouds and rain remains one of the most impressive images of the pandemic. On that day in March, in its emptiness, St. Peter’s Square had embraced a new, planetary universality.

The full return of Easter

In the setting of his Urbi et Orbi prayer, Francis had found a way to communicate with closed, confined humanity, regardless of its faith or its atheism. The absence became a more acute presence. “No one is saved alone,” he said.

The decision to limit the participation of the faithful in the Easter celebrations, broadcasting them via streaming, represents a moment that perhaps has passed too quickly in the dizzying actuality that crosses our screens, but which will probably remain for a long time to define one of the basic trends of our time. The Catholic Church followed, in part indeed accompanied the distancing measures, because it understood the health and political reasons that presided over this choice, sometimes adopting in a clumsy way the possibilities allowed by digital to limit the spread of the virus.

How did this decision come about? Paradoxically – at least if we stop at the story of the Vatican divisions – it was Cardinal Robert Sarah, appointed by Benedict XVI prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who signed the decree “In time of Covid-19” (Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum, Prot. no. 153/20) which offered general indications to the Bishops.

The text of the decree in its dryness recalled that Easter as “the heart of the liturgical year is not a feast like any other and cannot be transferred.” However, he expressed a decisive formula three times. The celebrations are authorized “to the extent of the real possibility established by those in charge“. In short, if it had not been allowed, the decree encouraged parish priests to celebrate alone “the liturgical mysteries by informing the faithful of the starting time so that they can join in prayer in their homes”, suggesting to help each other with the “means of telematic communication live, not recorded”.

The tight curve of the pandemic has seen a united Catholic Church pass on a front that we could define as responsible. Between health and holiness, in this complicated passage we can measure the relationship of the Church with our extreme modernity. A force that slows acceleration, reduces friction and brings stability to the convulsions of the contemporary.

There was certainly no lack of opposition, among all that of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben who was scandalized by this choice: “The Church has denied purely and simply its principles, forgetting that the saint whose name the current pontiff took embraced lepers, that one of the works of mercy was to visit the sick, that the sacraments can be administered only in presence.”

We must note, however, that within the Church few important figures have distanced themselves in a blatant way from these unprecedented measures, even shocking from the liturgical point of view. An exception is perhaps represented by the case of Archbishop Carlo Vigano, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, who entered a conspiratorial spiral that led him to take increasingly radical positions, developing an apocalyptic reading of the pandemic and of political and ecclesiastical management through the notion of deep state and deep church. He will end up being supported by the then President of the United States Donald Trump to whom he had written a letter with singular tones in which he evoked the American President’s struggle against “the children of darkness”.

The position of the Orthodox Church

We find here a radical difference with the position taken by a substantial part of the Orthodox Church that has often explicitly evoked the eschatological dimension of the crisis: the pandemic was read as a sign and as a call to be ready for the end times. In its hierarchy as a whole, however, it has adopted a much less meek approach to health indications, especially in relation to distance and gestures barrier to communion. It should be remembered that the Orthodox make communion with blessed bread and wine, mixed in the holy chalice and administered by the priest with a spoon.

To prevent sacred gifts from falling to the ground, a red veil is held under the chalice and cleans the mouths of the faithful who have received communion. The faithful then kiss the chalice symbol of their belonging to the priesthood of Christ. At the end of the liturgy, priests or deacons consume the remains of sacred gifts and wash the chalice with hot water.

The risk of contagion of these gestures seems evident, but a theological argument was opposite to the epidemiological argument. According to Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, chairman of the Education Committee of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church: “As Orthodox Christians, we are convinced that it is impossible to be infected through the communion of holy gifts, through the Body and Blood of Christ.”

The dialectic between faith and the world

We observe here a tension already noted by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini at the end of the Soviet Union, who had discovered with concern the unpreparedness of a Church “coming out of the catacombs,” but “frozen and therefore unprepared for confrontation with pluralism and democratic freedom.”

I

n this sense, even the gifts of the Orthodox Church, defined by Joseph Ratzinger as an “authentic Christian asceticism,” risk being an obstacle to the expression of that “clear and profound faith, capable of expressing itself and engaging even in the most delicate frontiers and in the most intricate crossroads of history” of which Martini spoke.

Unfortunately, we must note that this discrepancy will explode with the invasion of Ukraine. The crasis between Muscovite Orthodoxy and Putin’s apparatus will be taken to the extreme by Patriarch Kirill when on March 6, 2022, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on St. John’s Sunday, Adamic Exile Sunday (“Sunday of Forgiveness”), he delivered a fiery sermon to justify the causes of Putin’s war in Ukraine:

“Today there is a proof of loyalty to [Western] power, a sort of pass for this ‘happy’ world, a world of excessive consumption, a world of apparent ‘freedom’. Do you know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time terrifying: it’s a gay pride parade.”

The lesson of Carlo Maria Martini

It is in this sense that, as the vaticanista Jean-Benoit Poulle has noted, a biblical word paradoxically dedicated to “forgiveness” serves as a justification for war in the Byzantine tradition of Caesaropapism:

“And so today, on this Sunday of forgiveness, I, on the one hand, as your pastor, invite everyone to forgive sins and debts, even where it is very difficult to do so, where people are fighting each other. But forgiveness without justice is a surrender and a weakness. Forgiveness must therefore be accompanied by the indispensable right to be on the side of light, on the side of God’s truth, on the side of the divine commandments, on the side of what reveals to us the light of Christ, his Word, his Gospel, his greatest covenants given to the human race”.

In the upheavals of the twenties, a radical difference and a challenge for the universal Church, not only or not so European, of Francis re-emerges. Faced with the return of political theology, confronted with a “holy war” waged by a nuclear power, we can perhaps start again from a piece of advice from Carlo Maria Martini: “the Western Churches will have to show that faith can be lived seriously and meaningfully even in a technical and complex world like ours”.

L'articolo Francis and Kiril: the tale of two Easters proviene da InsideOver.

This report was produced thanks to a contribution from Aid to The Church in Need 

Qaraqosh (Iraq) The Christians of Qaraqosh, persecuted by Isis, have been thronging the streets for hours, waiting to greet Francis, the first pilgrim pope to visit Iraq. Olive branches, photos of Bergoglio and Vatican flags create the setting for a great, unforgettable day of celebration. The Christians are colourful. The first we meet are heavily bearded Lebanese monks in grey robes and cowls, walking barefoot to the cathedral. A young mother has brought her little son dressed as the Pope. Some Rambo figures of the special security forces dressed in black and armed to their teeth have even put the flags of Iraq and the Pope on their bulletproof vests. A young priest and nun dancing wildly and singing at the top of their voices organise a choreography, shrieking the refrains in Italian at the crowd. A patrol of nuns is posted on a roof, including Patrizia, the only Italian in Iraq, who runs a kindergarten in Qaraqosh.

Jubilation greets the Pope’s arrival as the helicopter appears over Mosul. The crowd goes wild when they catch a glimpse of the Holy Father waving. Everyone wants to take selfies, but security is strict and Christians are satisfied with the photos with his image printed on a flyer. Before the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, half burned down by Isis, the Pontiff blesses the entrance door that opens onto a part of the church that is still blackened.

“I encourage you: do not forget who you are and where you come from! Do not forget the bonds that hold you together, your roots!” the Pope begins before the altar still blackened by fire. Bergoglio urged Christians to remember that “forgiveness is needed on the part of those who survived the terrorist attacks. Please do not to grow discouraged. We need the ability to forgive, but also the courage not to give up.” As a memento the Pope received two stoles bearing the symbols of the crosses destroyed by Isis and he returns to Iraq a sacred book that miraculously escaped the Caliphate’s advance, having been taken to safety in Italy.

The Pope’s dedication as the guest of honour of the cathedral is moving: “From this destroyed and rebuilt church, a symbol of hope for Qaraqosh and all of Iraq, I invoke from God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the gift of peace…”

A few hours earlier, Francis was in Mosul, the former capital of the Caliphate, amid the shocking scenario of destruction of the Square of the Four Churches that was turned into a Taliban court and a terrible jail by Isis. Eventually the allied coalition against terrorism bombed it and razed it to the ground. “How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, was struck by such an inhuman storm in which ancient places of worship were destroyed and thousands of people, Muslims, Christians, Yazidis – were killed,” Bergoglio declared before the rubble as he prayed for all the victims of the war.

The last stage of the historic three-day trip to Iraq is the mass at the stadium in Erbil, Kurdistan before a crowd of 10,000 people. When Francis arrives aboard the popemobile and drives around the stadium, the Christians are in raptures. Young and old run after the Holy Father as if he were a rock star. At the altar he shows many signs of old age, limping visibly, but the service is moving and Bergoglio avows that this journey “will remain forever in my heart”. In his homily he launches the message of resistance. “Today, I can see at first hand that the Church in Iraq is alive, that Christ is alive and at work in this, his holy and faithful people.”

L'articolo “The Church in Iraq is Alive”. Christians Celebrate The Pilgrim Pope proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Religion 12.03.2021

Among The Christians of Iraq

In Qaraqosh before ISIS there were 50,000 Christians. Twenty thousand fled the fury of the Islamic State

Fausto Biloslavo

The burly engineer has the task of repairing the statue, which comes from the proud Christian village of Karemlash. Here the Caliphate’s cutthroats defaced the symbols of the “infidels”, even breaking open tombs to plunder anything of value. “I am a Christian and I am convinced that we must not leave the Middle East, the land of our fathers,” stresses Kadifa in a sad voice, the tone of one who still feels persecuted today.

On the footbridge at the entrance to the village of Karemlash, north of Mosul, the yellow and white Vatican flags fly together with those of Iraq. Two large photos of Pope Francis rise above the street bearing the word “welcome”. Christians in arms of the Nineveh Protection Units guard the small town and patrol the entrances. With weapons, camouflage jackets and special corps equipment, the some 500-600 men were trained by the Americans and answer to Baghdad in the chain of command.

Father Paolo guides us through the rubble of Karemlash, recently liberated from Islamic State. The church is as good as new, but the bell tower still bears the marks of the explosions and the cross is bent in half. “We decided to leave it like this to bear witness and not forget what the Christian community has suffered,” the priest explains in perfect Italian.

The tolling of the bell which has remained intact calls the faithful to prayer. Inside the church a nun plays the organ, accompanying the choir of young Christian girls wearing a light white lace veil over her head. This is the same choir that will sing for the Pope amid the rubble of Mosul.

Qaraqosh is the heart of Christianity in the Nineveh Plains. The church of the Immaculate Conception is over a thousand years old. Outside, a photo of Pope Francis rises above the arches devastated by the bullets fired by terrorists, who used the square as a shooting range. The church is packed with worshipers for the first Sunday mass at 7 a.m. The ancient vaults, the clouds of incense, the priest wearing the robes of the past, the marks made by bursts of machine-gun fire, the portraits of Jesus and the saints, all remind us of the faith of the Christians in the catacombs. The faithful elder who can barely stand upright, the brave women telling their beads, the children with lighted candles at the side of the altar and the ringing “amen” that echoes when the faithful make the sign of the cross all heighten the sense of expectancy for the Pope’s visit.

50,000 Christians lived in Qaraqosh before ISIS. Some 20,000 fled mainly to Lebanon and Jordan to try to reach Europe or the United States. Of the others, 90% have returned and are rebuilding their destroyed or looted homes, but there is no work and their safety is always uncertain. 45.53% of the Christians have returned to the Nineveh Plains. The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need has invested almost 50 million euros, particularly in rebuilding their homes. Occupation by the Caliphate destroyed or damaged 369 churches and 14,035 Christian homes in the Nineveh Plains alone.

And when he crosses the threshold he will find himself faced with a kind of “museum”, tangible proof of the persecution of Christians. A blow from a scimitar split the head of a statue of St. Joseph in two. Father Ammar almost weeps over a little headless baby Jesus beheaded by Isis. The Islamic cutthroats scarred sacred portraits, burned books of the Christian faith, and vented their fury on an ancient wooden cross, breaking it in two. Over 120,000 Christians fled within a few days, in August 2014, in the face of the terrible advance of the black flags of ISIS.

Today the new threat casti g its shadow over the Christian presence is that of the Shabak, the Shiite ethnic group of the Nineveh Plains. They are seeking to expand by buying or conquering lands with the support of the militias. On the main street of the Christian town of Bartella, a photo of the Iranian Pasdaran general, Qassim Suleimani killed in January last year by an American drone in Baghdad, is posted on every lamp post.

L'articolo Among The Christians of Iraq proviene da InsideOver.

This report was produced thanks to a contribution from Aid to The Church in Need

(Mosul) Engraved on the vault of the entrance, indelible over time, is a white cross. A lean man in his forties with shaven head comes to open the iron door in the ancient alley where you can only pass one at a time. Majdi Hamid Naqash , 45 years old, was the first Christian to return to Mosul after the city’s liberation from the clutches of the Caliphate.

“We were driven out and they destroyed the Christian symbols, but now the only thing that matters is that we are coming back to live in our city again,” points out Majdi Hamid Naqash. His family home, standing for over a century, was damaged in the fighting. The UN refugee agency gave him a hand by rebuilding some walls and painting them a cloying lilac colour. The lonely and courageous Christian is having a hard time, he is jobless, but he is determined not to give up. “Where should I go? Live as an illegal immigrant in Europe and end up under a bridge?” Naqash wonders. “My Muslim neighbours bring me some food and the church helps me. I’m no longer afraid. ISIS is finished.” Islamic State had seized his house marking it with the Arabic letter “nun” which means Nazarene, or infidel. All around still lies the rubble of the furious battle in the last redoubt of the Islamic State in ancient Mosul, west of the Tigris, a tangle of alleyways and houses.

The Christian, who has placed an image of the Madonna on his front door, is part of a small group of 70 families who have returned to Mosul.

A fraction of the Christian presence of the past.

“My dear Christian brothers and sisters from Iraq, who have testified to your faith in Jesus amid harsh sufferings, I cannot wait to see you,” the Pope announced yesterday in a video message on the eve of his departure for Iraq. “I am honoured to encounter a Church of martyrs. Thank you for your testimony!” Francis lands today in Baghdad for the historic journey to the cradle of civilisation and Christianity, which will last three days. A capital under heavy security measures, with the churches guarded by the Iraqi special forces in black uniforms is awaiting the Holy Father’s arrival. The authorities have proclaimed a total lockdown with the pretext of the virus, but in actual fact it is a measure to ensure maximum safety for Francis. In his heartfelt message, the Pope recalled the Christians who have undergone “harsh trials” and “images of houses destroyed, churches desecrated ” as well as “the wounds of affections left behind and abandoned homes”.

The message is addressed to all those Iraqis who have suffered from war and destruction: “Now I come to your blessed and wounded land as a pilgrim of peace and a penitent.” The Pope explained that he is arriving in Iraq, “in search of fraternity, animated by the desire to pray together and to walk together, also with brothers and sisters of other religious traditions, under the sign of our Father Abraham, who unites Muslims, Jews and Christians in one family.” Francis also spoke of the Yazidis, massacred by the ISIS cutthroats. “Finally I will be among you,” announced the Pope, who wants to bring “the affectionate caress of the whole Church” to the persecuted Christians of Iraq. And finally, he ended the video message with the traditional salute “Alsalam eleikum”, peace be with you.

During his visit to Mosul, the Pope will pray in the rubble of the great battle in the “capital” of the Caliphate, which destroyed churches and mosques. Unesco is spending 50 million dollars donated by the Arab Emirates to renovate the Square of the Four Churches, reduced to stone skeletons in the old part of the city, as well as the al-Nouri mosque, not far away, where Abu Bakr al Baghdadi proclaimed the Caliphate.

Isis used Al Tahera, the church of the Pure built in 1862, as a Taliban court and fearsome jail. The black lettering, “no entry by order of Islamic State”, still appears on the walls riddled with bullets. In front of the gutted dome, Anas Zeyad, a young engineer who is leading the work in the field, says, “We have finished removing 2500 tons of rubble. Ten ready-to-use explosive traps and a mined vest were found among the rubble” for suicide bombers. Used as an ISIS base, it was bombed by the allies supporting the advance of Iraqi troops. It will take another two years’ work to restore the Square of the Four Churches, the mosques at Nouri and the leaning minaret to its former glory.

On Sunday, Pope Francis will kneel before the impressive amphitheatre of war that has not spared the places of worship. Thanoon Yahya Yusuf is a blacksmith born in Mosul, but his family descends from the Christians of the ancient crusader stronghold of Acre, now an Israeli city. His brothers and sisters have emigrated to the United States, Jordan and Australia. On his living-room wall he has hung a picture of the Last Supper with Christ and the disciples. Many Christian friends have remained in Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, after fleeing in the face of the brutal advance of Islamic State in 2014. “I tried to explain that they could return, but you can’t persuade people to change heaven for hell,” Yusuf explains. And on the Pope’s visit, which he is awaiting with pride and joy, he admits with a joke not so far from reality, that “even if the Messiah arrived, the Christians who fled would not return to Mosul”.

Between the lockdown and security measures, Iraqis will see the Pope on TV. Not everyone is applauding the visit. Abu Ali al Askari, security officer of the Shiite militia, Kataeb Hezbollah, praised the launching of rockets two days ago against an American base. Washington has announced massive retaliation. Al Askari, after complimenting the “Iraqi resistance”, said he was “not very optimistic about the Pope’s trip” raising doubts “about inter-confessional dialogue in Ur”, the home of Abraham and a crucial stage of the visit.

By contrast, the Shiite brigades of the Guardians of the Blood, who on 16 February launched rockets against the American base in Erbil, where the Italian compound is also located, have welcomed “the visit of the Pope of the Vatican, a man who deserves respect” . And they have announced a truce during Francis’s trip to Iraq.

Bashar Matti Warda, Archbishop of Erbil, reveals that “some religious fundamentalists are taking a hostile attitude on social media towards the Pope’s trip. Anything coming from the West is considered a crusade. These people see the Pope as the king of the crusaders arriving in the country as a missionary.”

In Baghdad this evening, Pope Francis, after his official visit to the Iraqi presidency, will meet the Christians in the cathedral of the Mother of Hope, where in 2010 jihadists massacred over 42 worshippers and 2 priests with bursts of machinegun fire during mass. The large drawings on the wall that protect the church depict the smiling pontiff with doves of peace flying around him. Father Majid Atalla will welcome Francis and he explains that, “The number of Christians has fallen due to wars and persecution, but we have to continue to bear witness to our faith in this land. This is why we need the Pope, to come among us to give us strength, courage and peace.”

L'articolo Pope Francis Arrives in Iraq: I Bring The Caress of The Whole Church proviene da InsideOver.

On the eve of the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, our reporter Fausto Biloslavo visited this tormented land of the Middle East. Many Christians still live here, for whom the Pope’s visit represents an important sign of hope and closeness, after the persecutions they suffered at the hands of terrorists of the Islamic State. An Italian contingent has already been working in the territory for years to defeat the jihadists definitively, and is ready to intervene if necessary to protect the Pontiff and his message of brotherhood.

This report was made possible thanks to the support of Aid to the Church in Need 

L'articolo Hope for the Middle East proviene da InsideOver.

Christmas is an opportunity to reflect upon how fortunate many of us are to spend time with loved ones, particularly after a devastating year like 2020.

But for many Christians around the world the holiday season offers no respite from suffering and persecution.

Christians are Suffering around the World

Many Christian families in Aleppo have suffered since the Syrian civil war started in 2011. Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic has made things worse for them in many ways, because those who have needed urgent hospital treatment have been left at a particular disadvantage due to the unsuitability of many hospital beds badly damaged by the conflict.

In the city, large numbers of Christians live in extreme poverty. Because of Syria’s circumstances, many have lost their jobs and their survival becomes increasingly difficult each day.

The Church of Aleppo, which has been on the front-line since the beginning of the war, has informed the Catholic foundation Aiuto alla chiesa che soffre (Aid to the Church in Need) that supports Christians wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in need, that 6,190 Christian families with children and the elderly are in need of help. They are working hard to provide these families with a new emergency initiative that will help them with food and medicines.

Aiuto alla chiesa che soffre is also aiming to help the diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria, which includes the city of Baga in the Nigerian state of Borno. The area was previously invaded by the violent Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. The invasion caused 8,000 women to become widows. The Catholic foundation aims to build a center designed to allow Christians who have been sexually abused by Boko Haram terrorists, as well as countless widows, to be adequately assisted by a team of experts.

China and Pakistan are ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ for Christians

Nigeria and Syria are not the only countries where Christians are suffering. The US again recently designated Pakistan and China as “countries of particular concern” for their “systemic and egregious violations of religious freedom.” The Trump Administration further noted that these nations’ treatment of Christians and other religious minorities “could lead to the imposition of certain sanctions against them.”

In particular, this is because China authorized the formation of the “Administrative Measures for Religious Groups” in February this year. The laws aim to strengthen the Chinese Government’s resolve against unregistered church gatherings, stipulating stiff fines for participants, and those who host such activities. According to Christianity Today, many Chinese Christians would agree that restrictions on religious freedom are increasing in Xi Jinping’s China.

Furthermore, Pakistan also has many anti-Ahmadiyya laws and enforces the culture of impunity for violence against religious minorities including Christians, leading to a culture of false accusations against Christians of blasphemy and religious-fueled violence.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also added Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan to the list of nations that are currently violating the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

Some Areas are Getting Better for Christians

Despite this, some Christians are experiencing positive changes across the world. In the Central African Republic, Bambari’s Kidjigira market remained a no man’s land separating the Muslim and Christian districts of Bambari. However, since 2017, international donors and humanitarian agencies have helped transform the town into a place where people of all faiths could come together.

Iraq has experienced an exodus of Christians in recent years, and Pope Francis’ visit in March 2021 is being viewed as an opportunity to support all Iraqis. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “It also represents a message of peace to Iraq and to the region as a whole.” The Pope has long sought a trip to Iraq and told a meeting of Catholic aid agencies last year that he wanted to travel there in 2020.

As Christmas approaches around the corner, it is important to remember that the festive season celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who founded the Christian religion. There will be no opportunity for many Christians around the world to celebrate this occasion in a safe and secure environment.

We can only hope that their fortunes change soon.

L'articolo Special Report: Violence Against Christians Around the World proviene da InsideOver.

Pope Francis recently marked the Catholic Church’s shift into a less Western-centered approach to the world by announcing a groundbreaking decision: to support what he renamed the “outskirts of the world”, namely the emerging powers of the Global South, in their fight for the de-Westernization of the international order. Francis has shown what he means by that in many ways, including one in particular.

Supporting ‘The Outskirts Of The World’

The Pontiff has plans to visit Beijing in the near future, a phenomena which is to be read within this context, as is the diplomatic support given to Cuba and Iran during their negotiations with the Obama administration. However, above all, Francis is focusing his efforts on the most important dream of every Pope: a reunited Christendom.

Bridges With Orthodox Christians

In February 2016 he had a historic meeting with Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ in L’Havana, and since then Francis has been visiting many Orthodox-majority countries to show Rome’s will to end the centuries-old division between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. He has also been joining the efforts with the Kremlin to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

The Crisis Facing Orthodox Christianity Today

The Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholemew I has a very good relationship with the Pope and apparently shares his vision. Bartholemew has been lobbying throughout the churches under his influence to end internal divisions. Ironically, however, Orthodox Christianity is falling apart due to a schism from within that Bartholomew I directly helped create by recognizing the Ukraine Orthodox Church’s autocephaly and independence from Moscow. This was a decision that spurred other churches in the Balkans to call on Costantinople to grant them autocephaly from Belgrade.

The Pope initially maintained neutrality so as not to interfere in the Orthodox churches’ affairs nor to annoy Moscow or Constantinople, but recently his opposition to “Orthodoxy’s balkanization” has started growing.

What Is Going On In Montenegro?

Soon after having achieved independence from Belgrade, Montenegro was turned into an important anti-Russian and anti-Serbian bastion in the Western Balkans. The country recently joined NATO and is now interested in following Ukraine’s path as regards religion: it wants independence.

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church operates under the patriarchy of Belgrade but both the clergy and the current government want to end this relationship. The former have demanded to Constantinople to concede autocephaly, while the latter is pursuing passage of a controversial law which, if adopted, would lead to the expropriation of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s assets in the country.

However priests loyal to Belgrade have been demonstrating strong opposition and have convinced thousands of churchgoers to gather and protest against the expropriation law. They have gained support from many of the main leaders of the Orthodox world, including Bartholomew I.

The Vatican Intervenes

Starting in June, the Patriarch of Constantinople gradually started changing his pro-autocephaly and pro-Balkanization standing and the Vatican’s discreet diplomacy is likely to be behind this development. Bartholomew I first rejected the idea of granting autocephaly to the would-be schismatic Montenegrin Church, and then later addressed a letter to the country’s president, Milo Djukanovic, demanding him to withdraw the proposed expropriation law.

Eventually, in early December, Pope Francis expressed his own position on the matter at the urging of Serbian Patriarch Irinej. Francis delegated the Vatican’s powerful Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, to contact Montenegro’s Prime Minister, Dusko Markovic, “not with the aim of interfering with the internal affairs of the Montenegrin state, but in the hope that the proposed law concerning religious freedoms would be passed on democratic principles.”

In other words, the Vatican is asking the Montenegrin government not to adopt the law without the consent of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which means, practically speaking, they are urging Montenegro not to pass the law. The Holy See’s intervention could prove crucial: on December 14, Markovic landed in Rome to have talks with the Pope regarding the wider subject of enhancing bilateral cooperation and it’s clear that the best way to pursue this goal is to take into account Pope Francis’ position on wishing to de-escalate Orthodox Christianity’s Balkanization.

L'articolo Pope Francis Comes Out Against Orthodox Christianity’s Balkanization proviene da InsideOver.