Thank You Pope Benedict XVI

I always liked The Pope. But my respect and admiration to him has increased lately. Why? Because The Pope is not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to the plight of the Iraqi Christians. Since he has gone public with his concerns, the mainstream media -- for a change -- started to pay attention to this subject.

Yesterday, The Pope met with the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East to discuss the current situation of the Iraqi Christians. Here's some of the Pope's concerns as reported by the media:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday he was greatly concerned about the fate of Christians in Iraq, returning to a theme he discussed with President Bush earlier this month.

The pope also denounced the slaying of a Catholic priest in Iraq as a "barbaric killing," and lamented the overall escalating violence in the Middle East for the second time in a week.

"Particularly in Iraq, the homeland of so many of the Assyrian faithful, Christian families and communities are feeling increasing pressure from insecurity, aggression and a sense of abandonment," Benedict said during an audience with the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.
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"Many of them see no other possibility than to leave the country and to seek a new future abroad," the pontiff said. "These difficulties are a source of great concern to me, and I wish to express my solidarity with the pastors and the faithful of the Christian communities who remain there, often at the price of heroic sacrifices."

The Pope extends his concerns to the plight of all Christians in the Middle East:

Speaking of the Middle East on Thursday, Benedict expressed "pain and concern over the delicate situation" in the region, and said the Holy Land, Iraq and Lebanon were very much present in the church's prayers and action.

"The long-sought and long-awaited peace unfortunately is still largely offended," by violence, the pontiff said. Violence "often degenerates into war, whether or not declared, and ends up becoming a pressing international problem, as is today," he said.

"I knock on the heart of those who have specific responsibilities to ask that they adhere to the important duty of guaranteeing peace to everybody indistinctly, setting it free from the fatal disease of religious, cultural, historic or geographic discrimination."

In a pilgrimage Sunday in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, Benedict made one of his strongest appeals for an end to the "horrors" of fighting and terrorism in Iraq and the Middle East, and decried "the illusion" that force could resolve conflicts.

Thank you Pope Benedict for your concerns. It means so much for me and the other Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christians.