mda. “During the general audience of September 3, 2014, Holy Father Francis, through a translator to Arabic, said, “I cordially greet the Arab-speaking pilgrims, especially those from Iraq”. “The Church is a mother and therefore, like all mothers, knows how to help her children most in need, pick up the child who falls, heal the sick, seek the lost, wake up the sleeping and also defend her defenseless and persecuted children”. “Today, I especially wish to assure the latter, the defenseless and persecuted of my closeness: you are in the heart of the Church and the Church suffers with you and is proud of you…you are the strength and the concrete and authentic example of her message of salvation, forgiveness and love. I embrace all of you, all of you. May the Lord bless you and protect you always”. The Pope follows very closely what is happening with the Christians and other persecuted minorities in Iraq and Syria. To show them his closeness, he sent Cardinal Fernando Eiloni to visit Erbil –the capital of Kurdistan- from August 12-20, where there are approximately 70.000 Christian refugees. Christians who had to abandon their homes, their churches, their work places, Christians who suffer the death of relatives and friends, who suffer hunger and who are afraid. During his visit the cardinal presented a million dollars on the Pope’s behalf to help the Christians and other minorities who flee from ISIS. The 70,000, each one with their own story, with their pain, with their life in ruins. “Please help them, carry them on your shoulders, like your brothers, your sisters, your children”, Cardinal Filoni asked. “They are your children, your elderly, they are your elderly”.
Pope Francis’ special envoy to Iraq, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, exhorted the international community to view the Iraqi refugees not as collective group but as individual persons, with their own stories and needs. When you look at them sitting on the ground. You do not think about them as a crowd. You think about them as single persons, about each individual story and needs. ““We should set our sight on every child, every person. When you look at them sitting on the ground. You do not think about them as a crowd. You think about them as single persons, about each individual story and needs”, he said in an interview with ACI Press, on August 22nd.
“According to data I have been given, at the moment in Iraq there are 1.2 million internally displaced persons,” he said, explaining that this includes Christians, yazidis, Muslims and Chaldeans.” ““I reported to Pope Francis on the precariousness of these people, who have mostly fled without anything,” Cardinal Filoni said. He explained that he was deeply touched by the plight of the people – suffering individuals, each with their own story. In particular, he was struck by the suffering children, elderly and yazidi minorities. The cardinal described seeing “women crouched in a corner, without their husbands,” as well as grown men “crying like children because they do not see any future for their people.”
They teach them songs…
In addition, the Papal envoy was astonished at “seeing benumbed elderly, sitting down not doing anything in the heat.” “When one is uprooted from his village, where he had his life, his friendships, and is just sitting there, what does he expect? Only death. This is dramatic.” Cardinal Filoni also stressed the difficult situation of the children who have been uprooted from their homes. He voiced gratitude for those who are sacrificing to make the best of the traumatic circumstances. “There are volunteers, groups of young people who take care of children, invent games, teach them songs… they are small, pleasant things,” he said. Among the refugees, there are also newborn babies. “A child was born two days before my arrival,” the cardinal recalled. “His mom, with her husband and the other child, where there, doing their best to set up their little corner. They lost everything, they lack everything. Their only treasure is this child, who is born and thank God is there.”
They are our brothers
The Cardinal pointed out, “This is Pope Francis’ line”. “That we, as shepherds, should carry our sheep on our shoulders and lead them, but we also must walk with them. We must walk in front of them to lead them, walk among them to spur them, walk behind them to encourage them.”
It is estimated that there are between 120 to 130 million Christians displaced from their homes in northern Iraq because of the ISIS persecution that decreed in mid-July that if they did not abandon the territory of their “caliphate”, the Christians would be assassinated.
“I would like to encourage the entire world to use Pope Francis’ expression, when he said that each one of us has to carry others on our shoulders…This will give them the opportunity of not feeling abandoned, and for us not to think of them as strangers, and in this way we do not move away from the Gospel, from God, of humanity”, he concluded.
With material from VIS and ACI.
Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA
