November 18, 2007
Come Home
Michael Yon's follow-up to last week's reopening of St. John's Church in Baghdad:
Most Reverend Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq officiated standing directly beneath the dome under the Chaldean cross. Speaking in both Arabic and English, Bishop Warduni thanked those American soldiers sitting in the pews for their sacrifices. Again and again, throughout the service, he thanked the Americans.
Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”
This is a very uplifting and encouraging sign. Will this good feeling last forever? Knowing human nature in a fallen world, probably not. But it's a start, and it gives people something to build on, and to look back on the days ahead when Al-Qaeda or other groups try to set neighbor against neighbor again. May God bless these brave people and give them the peace they desire and deserve.
By at 12:55 PM |
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