A British bishop
has criticized his government's policy of repatriating Iraqi Christians
fleeing persecution, saying it was not true that Iraq was safe.
In
a special Mass at London's Westminster Cathedral Nov. 26, Auxiliary
Bishop William Kenney of Birmingham, England, denounced the policy.
The
Mass was celebrated for the victims of the Oct. 31 massacre at Baghdad's
Our Lady of Salvation Syrian Catholic Church, where 58 people died as
military officials tried to end a terrorist siege.
"We know the
situation of our brothers and sisters still in Iraq who wake at night
frightened by the knock at the door, the unusual sound, the gunshot or
the explosion, the knowledge that few if any will defend them, the
constant fear and tension of not knowing what will happen next," Bishop
Kenney said in his homily.
"We who are here in England are angry
when our government said ... that it was safe for people to be
repatriated to Iraq," he told a congregation drawn largely from London's
Iraqi Christian community. "You know in a way few others do how untrue
that is.
"Our emotions are of deep sorrow and possibly also of
anger: anger that innocent people are killed in this way, that our
friends, our relations are sacrificed for, at best, short-term political
gain, and, at worst, for no real reason at all, other than that they
are followers of Jesus Christ."
He said the Christian people of
Iraq were dying for their faith as martyrs and that he had known
personally some of those killed in anti-Christian violence in Mosul and
Baghdad.
Martyrdom "is something that the church in England and
Wales understands," said the bishop, who was forced to cancel a December
trip to Iraq because of the security situation.
"The church in these
countries is built on the witness of those put to death because they
would not renounce their faith.
"Today, it is not only our
relations and friends whom we have come to mourn," he said. "We have
also come to honor them as people who have been killed because of their
faith."
On Nov. 22, Alistair Burt of the British Foreign Office
told the BBC during that the government would continue to return all
Iraqi asylum-seekers to their own country.
Burt said the government considered Iraq safe for repatriation because it was no longer a war-torn country.
In October, the European Court of Human Rights wrote the British government to indicate that it opposed the policy.
The
English and Welsh bishops, in a Nov. 19 statement, also urged the
government "to review its treatment of asylum-seekers to ensure that
those who have suffered persecution are given the protection that they
deserve and to increase assistance to those Iraqis who have fled
neighboring Iraq."
In Washington, the U.S. bishops praised a
House of Representatives resolution that condemned attacks on religious
minorities in Iraq and called for the U.S. government to work with the
Iraqi government to protect vulnerable groups.
They said they especially
supported development of a "comprehensive plan to improve security for
religious minorities and to increase their representation in the
government of Iraq and to include them in all aspects of Iraqi society."
SIC: CS/INT'L
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