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IRAQ: Midnight Mass is cancelled amid safety fears
By Eva-Maria Kolmann and John Newton
Archbishop Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, who said that Christians are scared of fresh attacks
Iraq’s Christians will spend Christmas in “great fear” according one of the country’s leading bishops.
Archbishop Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, told Aid to the Church in Need that Christians are scared of fresh attacks.
He said that traditional vigil services such as Midnight Mass will not be possible because of the high security risk – all services over the festive period will be conducted in the daytime – and Christians will not display Christmas decorations outside their homes.
According to the archbishop the security situation in the country has become more unstable following the withdrawal of US troops earlier this month.
But Archbishop Sako said that the situation had been dramatically affected by the struggle for political power between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
The archbishop’s words follow a number of incidents in the northern province of Kurdistan, which was previously regarded as a safe haven by many Christians who fled there from the south.
In Kurdistan’s capital, Erbil, 29-year-old Christian Sermat Patros was kidnapped the on afternoon of 12th December.
The week before at least 30 shops owned by Christians were torched in Zakho in the Kurdish province of Dohuk near the Turkish border between 2nd and 5th December.
Most of the shops targeted sold alcohol and it is reported that the attacks by youths followed a condemnation of liqour stores at Friday prayers.
As well as these incidents a Christian husband and wife – Adnan Elia Jakmakji and Raghad al Tawil – were shot dead in their car on 13th December in the northern city of Mosul. According to reports they were deliberately targeted and murdered.
Aid to the Church in Need is calling on Christians throughout the world to pray for Iraqi Christians throughout the Christmas season as a sign of solidarity.