Jesuit On The Jihad Against Chaldean Catholics

Soldier guards church in Dora

Jesuit priest Philippe Luisier, who teaches at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome — an institution devoted to the study of Catholic churches in the Middle East — said the violence has two goals: “to discourage the Christian presence in Iraq and to awaken in the Western world equally violent reactions.” “We must resist this double temptation,” he said, adding that there must be justice if peace is to be achieved in the country. Until these latest attacks, Christians had been starting to return to Baghdad, especially to the Dora district which is known as the “Vatican of Iraq” because of its large number of Catholic churches and religious houses.But many Church leaders in Iraq now appear resigned to believing that this recent violence will prompt a further exodus of Christians from the Iraqi capital. According to figures given to Aid to the Church in Need, a Christian charity, in 2003 the number of Christian families living in the Iraqi capital was 40,000; now it is barely 50.

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