Card Sako, Missionary month: an opportunity to reflect on vocation

We are all “disciples and apostles of Christ" says the Cardinal. In a "challenging" context we need to witness charity "with gestures and deeds". Muslims affected by this love and a Gospel that is not "closed dogma". The need for foreign missionaries.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - I tell Iraqi Christians to take advantage of this time to "deepen their vocation, pray, reflect on the call to the priesthood, to consecrated life also for the laity" because the strength of the Church "depends largely on this" says Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako.

He was commenting to AsiaNews on the opening of the extraordinary missionary month, when Pope Francis calls for believers to "move outside ourselves, opening up to others in a spirit of giving”.

"We need to reflect upon and nurture this vocation, beginning to discuss it within families: talking about the priesthood, about life in the monastery, because without priests, nuns, missionaries, how will we continue?"

100 years after the promulgation of the apostolic letter Maximum Illud by Benedict XV, the day after the end of First World War to give a "new impulse to the mission", Pope Francis wanted to relaunch the missionary task of the Church and of every Christian. For the Argentine pontiff this period also wants to be "a shock to provoke us to become active in proclaiming the Good News. Notaries of faith and guardians of grace, but missionaries ".

On October 1, "in communion with the Pope we inaugurated the month in the presence of 200 faithful". Many, underlines Card Sako, "could not participate due to the closure of the roads, because of the demonstrations" against corruption and unemployment that caused at least seven deaths and 400 wounded leading Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to impose a curfew until further notice. The message we want to send, he adds, is that "we are all disciples and apostles of Christ, sent to proclaim the Good News".

In the particular Iraqi reality it is important to highlight the element of the "joy" that is present in the Gospel, to apply its dictates and values ​​"in conduct, in relationships with others" also and above all "with our Muslim brothers who are waiting for a different witness". Doing this, he reflects, "it is our turn and we must not be shy in affirming our Christian faith, even in the liturgies that are a sign of our love for Christ. Not just words, but a true testimony ”.

Chaldean Christians live every day in a context of "challenges", starting from Islamic fundamentalism that spares no use of violence. "Our whole history - he underlines - is like this, our fathers resisted without losing faith or hope. We too must do so too ”.

Another challenge is the "secularization" which is exclusively interested in the economy, in money and which "wants to empty society of Christian values". This is why we, too, here have "a mission" which is "to witness with gestures, with deeds: what strikes Christians, even above all where they are a minority, is their charity, their being honest, not just words but in everyday life, in the family ”.

The Chaldean primate emphasizes Muslims are struck by this love, by this openness, by the fact that "the Gospel is not a closed dogma. The Church changes, it is on its way and must come out like the boat of Peter did; it doesn't have to be rigid, but knowing how to read the signs of the time ”. And in this context the laity play a fundamental role as "active members" and the Chaldean Church has wanted to underline it "welcoming them to the Synod" and making them participants in work, decisions. "When the Pope says that we are baptized missionaries - says the cardinal - he does not speak of the clergy, but of every Christian, each of us is called to be a missionary".

Finally, we asked the Chaldean Patriarch if Iraq needs foreign missionaries: "We already have missionaries - he responds - because we need everyone, even priests from abroad. We have new Malabar Indian sisters, two priests also from India who work in the parishes in Baghdad, but we need the support of the whole universal Church. This path - he concludes - is an exchange that enriches. We also need institutions, schools, hospitals, youth centers ... resources are limited and we have had to send so many abroad for diaspora communities".

• Iraq
• Vatican
• extraordinary missionary month
• Islam
• Christians
• Muslims
• religious freedom
• persecution