VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope Benedict XVI called on government and religious leaders to help end acts of “cruel violence” and intolerance many minority Christians are facing in some parts of the world, especially in Iraq and India.
He asked authorities do everything possible to restore the rule of law and peaceful co-existence so that “honest and legal citizens may know they can count on adequate protection from the state”.
The Pope made his appeal from his apartment window to pilgrims gathered below in St Peter’s Square before praying the Angelus on October 26.
He said he wanted to draw the world’s attention to “the tragedy that is engulfing some countries in the East where Christians are victims of intolerance and cruel violence, killed, threatened and forced to abandon their homes and wander in search of refuge”.
Iraq and India were two nations of deep concern, he said, adding that he wanted to uphold an appeal launched on October 24 by Catholic leaders from the Middle East, Eastern Europe and India who were participating in the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible.
Pope Benedict said he was sure that, “after centuries of living in respectful co-existence, the ancient and noble peoples” of Iraq and India had learned to “appreciate the contribution the small, but hard-working and skilled, Christian minorities make to the development of their shared nation”.
Christians “do not demand privileges but desire only to be able to continue living in their country together with their fellow citizens as they have always done”, he said.
In India, tens of thousands of Christians have fled anti-Christian violence that erupted in Orissa state in late August.
Several Church leaders have denounced the local government’s inaction in stopping or prosecuting the cases of violence and destruction of Church property.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that in northern Iraq more than 13,000 Christians have fled Mosul recently because of intensified violence and intimidation there.
That figure represents more than half the city’s total Christian population – many of whom have fled to other towns further north or across the border to Syria, the UNHCR said on October 24.
Chaldean Bishop Rabban al Qas of Arbil told the Rome-based missionary agency AsiaNews that the wave of killings and threats against Christians in Mosul had intimidated even moderate Muslims, who no longer try to defend their neighbours from intolerance.
