作者 p. Ragheed Ganni

距离加色丁礼天主教神父被杀害已12年，他曾就读过的爱尔兰学院对此做出了以下思考。他叙述道，那些以“武力”做威胁的人“因我们的信仰而感到受威胁”。每次发生极端主义攻击后，数以千计的信徒都会蜂拥至教堂参加弥撒圣事。该神父讲道内容的音频。

巴格达（亚洲新闻）- 生活在迫害之下的人更加能够“发现天主的恩惠”，实现“他们信仰的坚定”，而其他人“却试图以武力威胁我们。实际上，是他们因我们的信仰而感到威胁”。这是摩苏尔本堂甘尼神父被杀害前几个月，在罗马爱尔兰学院讲道时的话语，2007年6月3日，伊斯兰极端主义突击队将他连同其他三名执事残忍杀害。这份现代教会史上有关伊拉克殉道者之一的珍贵文献，被伊拉克加色丁礼天主教神父巴沙——亦是甘尼神父的好友，发现并抄写，之后又将其转发给亚洲新闻。

距离惨案发生已12年，这位本堂仍活着大家的心中，他被视为见证自由的殉道者。在伊斯兰国掌权，成千上万的人背井离乡逃至摩苏尔及尼尼微平原前，他已经开始控诉基督徒被迫离开伊拉克或被禁止坚持各自信仰。借着圣保禄的教导，他补充说，没有人能够夺走耶稣的爱。即使为了见证这个信仰需要以生命为代价，直至殉道。

以下是甘尼神父于2006年11月17日在罗马爱尔兰学院晚祷时的讲道内容。

Homily of Fr. Ragheed Ganni at Vespers, 17th November 2006, Pontifical Irish College Rome

We all believe that each human being is created in the image and likeness of God, and because of this, we understand how evil it is that someone should be killed by another person, without thinking that this person has the right to live and that his life should not be taken away from him, even if they think that God is ordering them to do so.

Three years ago I went back to Iraq, after staying here in the Irish college for seven years. During those seven years I got to know a lot of things about Ireland, about the history of the church in Ireland and about persecution, and I always admired the faith of the Irish and the way they survived and kept their churches open. I often spoke about this. In the college I also came across people from different nationalities, and each one contributed to my knowledge in some way.

When I went back home, carrying my hopes and thoughts of working in my own diocese in the north of Iraq, in particular after the changes that had happened after Saddam’s regime fell, I thought that there was going to be a very bright future and that things would move in a better direction. And then over the last three years my own parish church was attacked, perhaps ten times. And sometimes people were wounded. But Christians still insisted on coming to Sunday masses and other activities. In fact, last Saturday there was another attack on my parish church, and I thought that on that Sunday nobody would come to mass, because within a very short period that church had been attacked six rimes. I was surprised to know that there were about five hundred people at evening mass the following day.

So I have always thought that people under persecution are able to discover the grace of God, and discover how strong their faith is, while there are people trying to threaten us with their weapons, because they are threatened by our faith.

People would often contact me asking me the most important thing that they could do for us. And I always asked for prayers. It is amazing how something like that built up our morale, just knowing there were people sharing our difficulties with us, people united to us though their prayers, and people who were thinking about us while we were suffering in Iraq.

I was very optimistic up to about three months ago, and then things took a turn for the worse, Now the future for Iraq is very grey and I think we need more prayers than ever. There are so many people fleeing to different countries or even to Kurdistan within Iraq, but there are many others unable to move to anywhere else, and they are in some way prisoners within their own homes. They simply cannot leave, and they really need a lot of prayers.

There is still pressure to try to remove Christianity from Iraq, or to stop Christians there from being faithful to their own tradition and their faith, but by the grace of God, as St. Paul says, nobody will ever be able to separate the love of Christ from us, or us from the love of Christ.

Once again, I thank the Irish College for allowing me to have this opportunity to share all this with you, and I ask you to continue praying for peace in Iraq and for the Christians there.