By Paul Dobbyn
THE sacrifices people have made for their faith in Iraq are a vivid reality for Brisbane priest Fr Gerry Hefferan. He visited the war-torn region last year and saw relics from 20th century martyrs held in a sacred vessel in a northern Iraq church. He is continuing prayers for peace in Iraq.
The Bracken Ridge parish priest has watched the recent turmoil in the country and is planning to hold more prayer meetings for peace in the troubled region.
“These people desperately need our prayers and support as their lives and the very existence of Christianity in these regions are threatened,” he said.
Religious leaders in the Middle East and Australia echoed Fr Hefferan’s words. Assembly of the Catholic Bishops in Iraq president Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako said more than 100,000 Christians had been displaced.
“It has become obvious that Iraqi Christians along with other minorities have received a fatal blow at the core of their lives,” he said. “I visited the camps of the displaced persons in the provinces of Erbil and Dohok and what I saw and what I heard is beyond any imagination.
“What has happened is terrible and horrific, therefore, we need an urgent and effective international support from all the people of good will to save the Christians and Yezidis … from extinction ….”
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the situation needed “prayer, action and deep reflection”.
“The extremists’ barbarism … has nothing to do with real Islam or God and is blasphemy of a kind,” he said.
Last year Fr Hefferan was visiting two religious sisters, who had studied in Brisbane, and Erbil Archbishop Bashar Warda when he came upon the church honouring the Christian martyrs.
“The church was in the city of Shaqlawa in the Kurdistan region of Iraq,” he said. “The soil from the graves of some of these martyrs was in a sacred container on the church’s left-hand altar, beneath a mural depicting the story of one of the martyrs who had died for their faith.
“It is to this city of Shaqlawa that people have now fled for shelter from places like Mosul and villages on the Nineveh Plains as the ISIS (Islamic State) fighters continue their attacks. People are also fleeing to other cities including Ankawa.”
Fr Hefferan discussed with Archbishop Warda in Erbil last October plans for prayers and a novena in Bracken Ridge parish in the lead-up to the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14.
“This feast day has great significance for the Church in the Middle East,” he said. “I came to understand this is because the cross is a reminder of martyrdom and sufferings undergone by the faithful there.
“My hope is people through Brisbane archdiocese and elsewhere can join in prayer and solidarity with these suffering people at this time of crisis for the Church in places such as Iraq and Syria.”
