Venezuela, Iraque e Famílias - Crises para todos os gostos

Até as lojas de álcool no Iraque estão em crise

O Papa recebeu esta segunda-feira, e sem que tivesse sido previamente anunciado, o presidente Nicolás Maduro, da Venezuela. Falaram da crise que o país atravessa, que vai de mal a pior.

Com o cerco a Mossul a apertar são já várias as terras cristãs que já foram libertadas do jugo do Estado Islâmico. Qaraqosh já é livre, bem como Bartella, onde voltaram a tocar os sinos das igrejas. Falei sobre este assunto com o especialista Nuri Kino, cristão assírio, que me diz que os cristãos estão “cautelosamente felizes” com estes desenvolvimentos, porque ainda há muito por fazer. Aqui podem ler a transcrição integral, no inglês original.

A situação no Iraque não passou o lado do Papa, que admitiu que as notícias que recebe de sofrimento e morte lhe levam às lágrimas e deixam sem palavras.

Enquanto alguns iraquianos combatem o Estado Islâmico, outros estão corajosamente a combater o consumo e comércio de álcool. A proibição do comércio de bebidas alcoólicas é mais uma medida que afecta sobretudo os cristãos naquele país.

A Igreja quer fazer mais e melhor no acompanhamento de casais e famílias em crise. D. António Marto diz que é preciso “olhar para o matrimónio como uma vocação e um projecto a construir” e a Renascença dá-lhe a conhecer vários projectos que existem nesta área, incluindo o “projecto família” do MDV que em 10 anos já evitou que mais de três mil crianças fossem retiradas às suas famílias.

Arrancou ontem a Semana da Educação Cristã. D. João Lavrador presidiu à missa inaugural, nos Açores.

Christians “cautiously joyful” with liberation of Nineveh Plains

This is a full transcript, in the original English, of my conversation with Swedish Assyrian journalist and activist Nuri Kino about the liberation of Qaraqosh and other Christian towns and villages in the Mossul region. Read the news story, in Portuguese, here.

Transcrição integral, no inglês original, da minha entrevista ao jornalista e activista sueco/assírio sobre a libertação de Qaraqosh e de outras vilas e aldeias cristãs na região de Mossul. A reportagem está aqui.

We have had conflicting reports about the situation in Qaraqosh. From your information, what is the situation on the ground?

The news regarding the Christians is that Bartella, a town of about 30 thousand inhabitants prior to ISIS, has been fully liberated. We have received videos and pictures of the church bells ringing. That is of course very satisfying.

When it comes to Qaraqosh we received pictures of the main hospital being liberated, the town hall buildings and also the Iraqi Army headquarters. But it is very hard to know if it is totally liberated or not. We are also receiving conflicting information about that.

I just spoke to two of the priests from Qaraqosh and they also have no full information, but the Iraqi army and some of the Christian forces are supposed to be inside Qaraqosh.

Two days ago we received information that it had been liberated. Then information came a couple of hours later saying that there were about 20 ISIS suicide bombers and snipers left in Qaraqosh and they were shooting people from the rooftops. Also, one of the biggest problems is the mines. There are a lot of mines around the city, both anti-personnel mines and street mines.

But we believe that Qaraqosh will be liberated today. [Saturday 21^st October]

How does that make you and other Christians feel?

Qaraqosh is about 70% Syriac Catholic and 30% Syriac Orthodox and I am Syriac Orthodox. For us there is no difference whether it is in southeast Turkey, where I was born, or in Syria or Iraq, or in Iran or in Lebanon. We are all the same nation, the same ethnicity, the same people with different names: Assyrian, Syriac, Chaldean...

Of course, after more than two years of ISIS in our home towns, we are very happy to see it, though we are also careful and cautious, because we never know how things will turn.

Look at what happened in Kirkuk yesterday... All of a sudden sleeping terrorist cells in Kirkuk started to hit the street, more than 20 suicide bombers. They also kidnapped some people and threatened to kill them, and battles are ongoing in Kirkuk, which is also a bit Iraqi city.

So I would say that we are cautiously joyful.

Also, after the liberation there is a lot of work to be done for our people to return to the Nineveh plane, where Bartella and Qaraqosh are. The Swedish MEP Lars Adaktusson is presenting a new resolution in the European Parliament about self-administration in the Nineveh Plane and two other provinces in Northern Iraq, so that these people can feel that they get their dignity back and rule their own areas, or at least get some power in the administrations, so that the inhabitants can feel confident to come back.

Also it is about dignity, so as to get their dignity back. The same thing is going on in Washington DC, there are political movements and political solutions – hopefully – so that people can move back.

In Iraq, before the fall of Saddam, approximately 1.3 million Christians lived there. After the fall of Mossul, we don't know, but we estimate that there are more not more than 250 thousand left.

So more than one million have already left the country, and people are emigrating every day, because they lost hope in the world leaders to protect them. But we do have some hope in what is happening these days, in the liberation of Nineveh and Mossul, and we also have hope in the political solutions that will be on the table over the coming weeks.

Are Christians afraid to be caught in between Baghdad and the Kurds, over who actually controls this region...

That has been going on since the fall of Saddam, it’s nothing new. It’s not a question of being afraid, we know it’s a fact, it’s been a fact for a decade now. So that is why we are asking for self-administration, so as not to be caught in the middle.

Will Bagdad and Kurdistan accept that idea?

Well we hope on the European Union and on Washington and the UN.

A little ringtone for your Saturday ... the church bells ringing in Bartella outside Mosul just liberated from #ISIS pic.twitter.com/qncchINW6Y

— Mindy Belz (@mcbelz) October 22, 2016

Leitura para Férias

Sabedoria 4, 16

Aproveito este meu último post antes de ir de férias para partilhar sobretudo alguns textos mais de fundo que vos poderão interessar.

Na sequência da minha reportagem sobre o Apoio à Vida e a Vanessa, que se tornou mãe aos 12 anos, publiquei a transcrição integral da entrevista a Joana Tinoco de Faria, psicóloga que acompanha estes e outros casos e fala com conhecimento de causa de toda  a problemática da gravidez adolescente, aborto e maternidade. É uma conversa longa mas interessantíssima!

Ao longo desta semana que passou falei também com o activista Nuri Kino, que fundou uma organização para ajudar os assírios, isto é, os cristãos do Iraque e da Síria que são perseguidos pelo Estado Islâmico. A conversa decorreu no dia em que foram raptados mais 250 cristãos na Síria e dias antes de serem libertados outros 22. Saiba aqui como pode ajudar os que se encontram a salvo, mas deslocados.

Na semana passada morreu o padre Ricardo Neves. Deixa muitas saudades e um vazio pastoral difícil de preencher sem a ajuda de Deus, que certamente não nos faltará. Hoje publiquei na íntegra uma entrevista que lhe fiz no ano sacerdotal. Não é uma homenagem, é uma forma de matar saudades.

E por fim, mais um artigo do The Catholic Thing. O grande Randall Smith sobre o que constitui um verdadeiro mártir. Será que Martin Luther King qualifica? E Edith Stein? E os mártires do Império Romano?

Por hoje é tudo, se houver notícias urgentes comunicarei, mas entretanto vou estar de férias. A festa continua no Facebook e no Twitter.

Kidnapped Christians in Syria: "It keeps repeating itself, since 1915"

Nuri Kino with Syriac bishops in Sweden

Full transcript of Nuri Kino's explanation about the situation in Syria, where 250 Christians have been kidnapped. News report, in Portuguese, here.

What information do you have about the kidnappings in Al-Quarayatayn?

Isis went in to the city and about 1500 people managed to flee. Most of them came to the churches of Homs. We spoke several times to the churches and the Syriac Orthodox Bishop managed to make a list of missing people. He and volunteers, clergymen and civil volunteers registered everyone that fled and asked them if they had any missing neighbours, friends or family members. Then they went through again and after several interviews with those who registered they completed a list of 250 missing people.

These 250 are all Christians?

They are all Syriac Orthodox or Syriac Catholic.

Could there also be people from other minorities who have also been kidnapped?

That we do not know, because we only spoke with the churches.

But was the city of  Al-Quarayatayn majority Christian?

Nearly only Christians.

There has been no information on the part of the kidnappers, no demands...

No. The only thing we know is that their cell phones have been switched off. So when relatives, family members and the churches try to reach them there is no answer.

This is not the first time there has been a mass abduction. The most recent one was near Hassakeh...

From the Khabour area there are still 222 people abudcted.

Do you know if they are alive?

Well those that have been released have told us about their whereabouts, that women and small girls and boys and men were separated from eachother, and the women were held in a small room and had to schedule their sleeping. That is all we really know now.

At the time there were people who had been released and said they had been ordered released by Shariah judges...

That information has not been reliable, some said that, others said they had been released because of health issues. Mostly elderly people.

The fact that they were not just executed, even though they were a burden for ISIS, may be a sign of hope, no?

Definately. But we also know from kidnappings from Mosul or the Nineveh, of at least one Assyrian woman, and an Assyrian kid who were given to ISIS members as gifts. So it’s devastating, and people keep fleeing... Those who managed to flee from Khabour went to Hassekeh, and then from Hassekeh to Qamishli, from Qamishli back to Khabour, where there were a lot of mines. Now they don't know where to flee. It keeps repeating itself, it’s been repeating itself since 1915, then 1933 and so on, and now, since 2004 we keep reportiong and reminding the world about this genocide, but no action is taken to save the Christian/Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs/Armenians and other Christians in Syria and Iraq.

I don't know, I have no words besides that one lion was killed and the whole world was furious, now all these people are getting kidnapped and slaughtered, why isn't the world furious about that? Why? Somebody needs to give an answer.

And its not just Christians, it’s also Muslims. ISIS is getting more and more violent, against everyone.

One year ago Mosul fell and the world woke up to ISIS. Did you imagine that one year later we would be in the same situation?

Yes. We also actually predicted Mosul, and the Nineveh plains. For years, in both DC and Brussels, we reported about it, we feared it. So it’s very sad and horrible, terrifying, but it’s not surprising.

You live in Sweden, where there is a big Assyrian community. Are there relatives of those who were kidnapped?

I will actually see one of the relatives of those from Habour, she has 42 of her family members kidnapped, and I spoke to a young man and a lady today who have relatives missing from the Homs area, but they are not sure if they are kidnapped or not, because they are not on the list that they saw.