_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ Iraq ________________

Closer ties for Eastern churches
Intercommunion authorized
The Vatican has issued guidelines allowing closer ties between an Eastern-rite Catholic Church and a corresponding Orthodox body.

The Vatican document, released October 25, allows members of the Chaldean Catholic Church to receive the Eucharist in the Assyrian Orthodox Church, and vice versa, in cases of necessity. But the document also points to the possibility of full communion.

Noting the “great distress of many Chaldean and Assyrian faithful”—who live primarily in and around Iraq—the Vatican document read:

When necessity requires, Assyrian faithful are permitted to participate and to receive Holy Communion in a Chaldean celebration of the Holy Eucharist; in the same way, Chaldean faithful for whom it is physically and morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, are permitted to participate and to receive Holy Communion in an Assyrian celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

The document—which was released by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, and approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Eastern Churches —also took note of the favorable trend in ecumenical talks between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church.

In 1994, Pope John Paul II and the Assyrian Patriarch Dinkha IV signed a joint theological statement, resolving a long disagreement on the nature of Jesus Christ. At the time of signing the document, Pope John Paul remarked that the agreement “allows the resolution of a separation that took place after the Council of Ephesus in 431, and puts an end to 15 centuries of misunderstanding on the subject of our faith in Christ.”

That statement furnished the basis for another agreement, signed by Patriarch Dinkha IV and the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael Bidawid in 1996, affirming a mutual desire for full communion between the two churches. That statement was approved in 1997 by the combined synods of the two churches.

Christians feel a backlash
Abuse follows US action in Afghanistan
A leader of the Iraqi political opposition has said that Christians in the country are suffering a backlash because of the US military campaign in Afghanistan.

Albert Yelda of the Iraqi National Congress told United Press International, “They no longer dare to wear their traditional crosses. They are being called ‘crusaders.’ They do not receive food rations.” The exiled Iraqi dissident added that supporters of President Saddam Hussein taunt their Christian neighbors, saying: “Ask the Americans to feed you. You have no business here.” Yelda represents Christians—mainly Chaldean Catholics from the Assyrian Christian minority—within the INC, a coalition of political groups opposed to Saddam’s regime.

Yelda said the current suffering is only the latest in a long period of persecution at the hand of Saddam. He said the Iraqi leader is like other tyrants, including Hitler and Stalin, who “hates minorities.”

Other Church leaders active inside Iraq have painted a much more favorable picture of the government’s attitude toward the Christian minority. Iraq is, in fact, one of relatively few countries in the Middle East in which Christians can practice their faith openly.

Back to Catholic World Report December 2001 Table of Contents