By Baghdadhope

The beginning of the week dedicated by the church to the Christian unity among its different components has been celebrated in the Mater Misericordia chapel of the Pontifical Urbanian College in Rome by a Holy Mass according to the Chaldean rite. (See photos in previous post)

The celebrants were Mgr. Philip Najim, Procurator of the Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans to the Holy See, and Apostolic Visitor for Chaldeans in Europe, and Don Remigio Bellizio, one of the vice-rectors of the College, assisted, as in the tradition of the Chaldean Rite, by a deacon, Robert Said, and by subdeacons who stressed the different moments of the ceremony singing the typical liturgical prayers of the same rite.

The presence among the choristers of subdeacons of different oriental churches present in some Arab countries, (Chaldeans, but also Siro and Coptic Catholic) and among the faithful of seminarists of different nationalities and traditions, not only reflected the centuries long history of the Pontifical Urbanian College that prepared to the evangelizer mission thousands of seminarists, (among whom the present Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly, the former Patriarch, Mar Raphael Bedaweed, Mgr. Shleimun Warduni, Bishop of Baghdad and Mgr. Sarhad Y. Jammo, Bishop of the Chaldean Eparchy of California) but underlined the importance of unity for Christians in an ever more divided and secularized world. The celebration, characterized by the use of Italian and Aramaic, the liturgical and ancestral language of many Middle Eastern Christians, had moments of deeply felt participation, especially when, after the reading of the Holy Gospel, Mgr. Najim, as the voice of the sufferings of Iraqi Christians, began to recall the history of the Chaldean Church, the church the most Iraqi Christians belong to.

“Church of the Martyrs”. This was the definition used by Mgr. Najim to describe it. Martyrs still now honoured by that tradition and among whom the particular occasion of the “Christian Unity Week” imposed to remember Yohanna Sulaka, the abbot of Rabban Hormizd monastery, in the north of Iraq, who, after the union with Rome in 1553 and his going back home, was killed and for this is still known as “The first Martyr for Unity”, and the last priest who offered his life for his faith, Father Ragheed Ghanni who was killed on June 3 2007 together with three subdeacons, Basman Yousef Daoud, Ghasan Bidawid e Wahid Hanna, in front of the Holy Spirit Chaldean Church in Mosul.

A Church that, despite difficulties, is alive in present times through its priests, monks, nuns and believers at home and abroad, not only in the countries bordering Iraq but in other continents too. In the United States, where there are two Chaldean Dioceses, in Australia, where the diocese was created in 2006, and in Europe where there are 20 missions and churches and where, by the beginning of next march, the first church entirely dedicated to the Chaldean rite in Germany will be consecrated. A living presence, although suffering, as the Pope Benedict XVI stressed on past November when the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Mar Emmanuel III Delly, was ordained as the first Cardinal of Chaldean Church and from Iraq.

A Church to which Mgr. Najim wished a future of peace and cohabitation with the other Christian denominations and the different religions in Iraq and abroad.

Baghdadhope asked to Mgr. Philip Najim a comment on the event.

“It was a moment of joy and communion. By simple and hearty words Don Remigio Bellizio stressed how my presence there as Procurator of the Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans to the Holy See was a sign of the deep unity and communion between the Chaldean Church and the Catholic universal one. This is the beauty of the Church: its ability to welcome and unify its different traditions, all of each full of those values of the faith the Christian cannot prescind from. To this end I want to recall Pope John Paul II’s words who said: “We cannot breath as Christians, and I’d say more, as Catholics, by only one lung; we need two lunges, the Oriental and the Western one.” Christian Unity is our duty but also the recognition of our common roots. If we consider the churches in Iraq they are the churches of an only people, with its history, liturgy, sufferings and improvements. For this reason dialogue, finalized to unity, is really important. So, for example, it is for the dialogue between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East that must proceed not only on the liturgical path but also on the constructive one for the good of our people at home and abroad and because our strength is in our unity.”