Editor's Report

Heeding the Call of Persecuted Christians

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The world is responding to the needs of Iraqi Christians and other minorities there who have been threatened, forced to flee and in some instances killed for their beliefs at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS).

In June, ISIS proclaimed a caliphate, or state run by a religious leader, after militants seized large parts of northern and central Iraq and eastern Syria, Catholic News Service has reported.

As CNY was going to press Tuesday, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a call for dioceses across America to take up a special collection in September for humanitarian needs and pastoral support for Christians and other victims of violence in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Church “mourns the terrible suffering of Christians and other innocent victims of violence in Iraq, Syria and Gaza who are struggling to survive, protect their children and live with dignity in dire conditions,” said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky.

Last Sunday, prayers for peace in Iraq were recited in parishes of the archdiocese, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, following a request by Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, the chairman of U.S. Bishops’ Committee of International Justice and Peace.

In New York, Catholic organizations, parishes and individuals are doing their part, in ways large and small, to respond to the crisis sparked by ISIS.

Mario C. Bruschi, director of St. Patrick’s Young Adult Ministry, regularly leads group members on Rosary walks during the summer months. This month and last, they prayed with the intention of their Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq. Not coincidentally, Bruschi believes, the walks doubled their normal attendance. Readers may recall seeing a couple of photos from the July 31 walk in Central Park in our last issue.

“When news broke out in July about the terrible tragedy in Iraq…we wanted to let people know our focus would be more specific to their plight,” Bruschi said Monday afternoon, speaking of displaced Christians there.

Several Iraqi Americans who participated in the Rosary walks expressed their gratitude to Bruschi for bringing awareness to the issue. On that score, he said, his group handed out buttons with the now-familiar symbol that stands for Nazarene, or Christian. Bruschi also has been encouraging others to use the symbol in postings about the situation in Iraq on Facebook, Instagram and other forms of social media.

As for the Rosary walks, the latest of which was held Aug. 14, participants prayed with the awareness that what they were doing would not be possible in Iraq and in some other places in the world.

“We can display our faith and pray publicly,” Bruschi said. “That’s something our brothers and sisters in Iraq cannot do. We are not taking our faith for granted. We are praying in public for them…”

At Holy Innocents Church in Manhattan, a candlelight prayer vigil for peace for persecuted Christians in the Middle East at nearby Herald Square became another public witness. It followed a 6 p.m. Mass in Latin celebrated by Father George Rutler, the parish administrator.

Father Rutler, who was not present for most of the Aug. 11 vigil, which included a Rosary and other prayers, called it a prayerful witness that followed strong appeals for help from Catholic and other Christian leaders in Iraq. He said he hoped the archdiocese would organize parishes in a broader demonstration of solidarity with fellow Christians in another part of the globe.

“This reminds me in a very chilling way of what was going on in the 1930s, the horrors in Europe with the Nazis,” said Father Rutler, a historian by training. Many then, in both Europe and the United States, said an atrocity such as the extermination of the Jewish people, could not happen in a civilized world, he said. Even in a civilized world, there are many uncivilized people, noted Father Rutler, who is also pastor of St. Michael’s parish.

“We should have learned from that horrible experience,” he said. “This is really a genocide. If people don’t stand up for suffering in one religion, they’ll be next. We’ve learned that.”

Also this week, Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), headquartered at the New York Catholic Center in Manhattan, announced it was rushing $75,000 to its partners in northern Iraq for urgently needed supplies for infants and children, as well as portable sanitary facilities for displaced families now living in U.N.-sponsored camps.

Along with diapers and milk for infants and children, the papal agency’s staff in Amman, Jordan, and Beirut, Lebanon, are already working with the local churches there “to assess and prioritize needs,” said Msgr. John Kozar, president of CNEWA.

CNEWA’s communications director Michael La Civita, who is also a board member of the Eastern Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, said the order had taken on responsibility for assisting Christians and others in Iraq in recent years and has been cooperating with CNEWA in that regard.

Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, a native New Yorker, has moved to make the service in Iraq “official” since he became the order’s Grand Master, La Civita said.

Peter McGuire, another Holy Sepulchre board member and a parishioner of St. John and St. Mary parish in Chappaqua, said the lieutenant of the Eastern Lieutenancy, Raymond Teatum, has been “leading the charge on all of this,” making sure the cardinal’s communications are quickly passed along to the papal order’s membership.

“In a situation that is unfolding as rapidly as it is (in Iraq), much of it involves finding out what is going on,” said McGuire, who serves as lay master of ceremonies and spiritual director for the Eastern Lieutenancy. Members not only support the order’s causes financially but also in their personal prayer and during special days of recollection.

“If we are able to encourage people to continue praying, all the better,” McGuire said.