Interview to Fr. Paul Rabban by Baghdadhope

It will begin this morning in Stockholm the Iraq Annual Review Conference dedicated to evaluating the results achieved in Iraq in the fields of economic reforms and consolidation of democratic institutions a year after the birth of the International Compact with Iraq, a five-year plan of development of the middle-eastern country.
 

Another topic under discussion will be, however, that of the Iraqi refugees who are now present in tens of thousands in the Nordic country. Just about the problem of refugees spoke in recent days both the Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, and Anders Lago, the mayor of Sodertalje, the town that more than others was ready to accept tens of thousands of them. Both defined as "unfair" the fact that Sweden has to bear the greatest weight of this biblical exodus, and the Prime Minister said he wants to address the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who will attend the conference as, while Sweden – that did not participate in the conflict of 2003 - accepted at least 40000 Iraqis since that year, the United States have welcomed 1600 of them in the 2007 fiscal year, and are willing to accept only other 12000 for that of 2008, even if in the first four months only 1332 permits were released.

An obvious disproportion that certainly will be discussed in Stockholm from where comes the request - already done in the past – to the European Union to intervene to share the weight that Sweden is bearing.
The refugees issue concerns particularly the Iraqi Christian community since to it belong many of the people who in recent years fled from the native country, reaching those who arrived in the Scandinavian one decades ago because of wars, dictatorship and embargo.
A community not without problems that finds in its co-religionists already living in Sweden, but also in the churches, valuable points of reference not only to the processes of social integration, but also to the preservation of the sense of entity, although in Diaspora.

Within this community a substantial number of people belongs to the Chaldean Catholic Church that in Sweden has three main centers of reference and three priests who guide them:

 

Father Samir Dawood,   Father Maher Malko and   Father Paul Rabban.

 Father Paul Rabban, priest of the Chaldean community of Eskilstuna, west of Stockholm, who told to Baghdadhope about the Chaldean Rite Mass that yesterday was celebrated by Mgr. Philip Najim, Procurator of the Chaldean Church to the Holy See and Apostolic Visitor in Europe, in the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Eric in Stockholm. The ceremony was attended by the Apostolic Nuncio to the Scandinavian countries, Mgr. Paul Tscherrig, by the bishop of Stockholm, the only Roman Catholic diocese in the country, Mgr. Anders Arborelius, by three Chaldean priests, Fr. Paul Rabban, Fr. Maher Malko and Fr. Fadi Isho, a monk, by a Swedish priest, by the chaplain of the cathedral, a syro malabar rite Indian priest, and by the responsible for the eastern Christians in Sweden, the byzantine rite Archimandrite Fr. Mathias Graham.

Father Paul Rabban said that the Mass held on the eve of today's conference was devoted to prayer to the Lord to enlighten the minds and the hearts of the participants to act for the good of everyone, not only of Iraqis, and to put aside selfish interests and work together for peace. Peace which was evoked by Mgr. Paul Tscherrig who reminded how it is in the thoughts and prayers of Pope Benedict XVI who always asked it for the tormented land of Iraq. And precisely on the situation in Iraq, and on one of its most damaging effects - the flight from the country – was focused the speech of Mgr. Anders Arborelius who stressed how much Sweden is touched by it, both from a human point of view and for the practical implications that such a conspicuous emigration in such a short period of time has created. Mgr. Philip Najim dedicated his words to the suffering of Iraqi Christians that even if huge will not be the cause of the dissolution of the community in the homeland because, like other times in the past, it will prove stronger than the adversities. "Iraqi Christians" said Mgr. Najim "are not afraid even if history repeats itself, but strongly ask to fight terrorism and that every effort be done to restore peace in Iraq." A peace that, if we look back, no inhabitant of that country recalls if not linked to short periods.

 

With regard to the conference it is surprising that, although the issue of refugees if not on the agenda is at least an important one, no representative, - secular or religious – of the Iraqi community in Sweden has been invited. By now, according to unofficial reports, we know only that after the official meetings the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri Al Maliki, could meet some Iraqis who live in the country, maybe also a group of representatives of the Christian community.