Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Condemnation of Those Who Murdered 58 at Mass in Bagdad Insufficient

A Troy, Michigan pastor is strongly disappointed in the massacre of 58 worshippers at Mass Sunday in Our Lady of Deliverance Catholic Church Sunday.

The slaughter follows a two-week synod in Rome that addressed the dwindling number of Christians chased out Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.


"A community is measured by its treatment of its minorities, and, protecting them from hardship and suffering," said Monsignor Zouhair Toma of St. Joseph Catholic Church.

Toma blasted Imams who "fail to tell their people to stop the killing."

Farmington Hills resident Jack Seman, a native of Iraq also spoke up and pressed "for peace and truth to end the corruption."

Along with about 40 others, Seman participated in an interfaith dinner and dialog Monday night in the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights. The event remembered those slain in Sunday's carnage, when witnesses reported that gunmen attacked a nearby bank and stock exchange before they invaded the church, leaving two priests and six terrrorists among the dead.

Lutheran Pastor Hanna Sullaka, another speaker at the All Faiths Festival (AFF) event, host with the mosque, yelled:

"I am ashamed to be from Iraq where they keep killing each other."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the slaughter was an attempt to drive Christians out of Iraq, while Pope Benedict XVI denounced the attact as "ferocious." The pope also called for fresh efforts to negotiate peace in the region.

"When governments fail to protect the weakest of the weak," what kind of community is that?" Toma asked.

"Muslims say nothing," Toma persisted, urging leaders "to give words of hope, acceptance, forgiveness and encouragement to Christians, like Pope Benedict and pastors who hold "deepest respect for human life."

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