Sunday evening, October 31, Eve of All Saints, Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, Bagdad, Iraq. Such heroism, such holy fortitude. Women and children were not spared. One terrorist put a bullet in the head of an infant to stop his crying. Martyrs who died at Mass in hatred for their Faith. After one injured terrorist blew himself to pieces, his crazed companions began shouting at the Christians: “You are unbelievers, you will go to hell while we are going to heaven, God is great’. ” The account you will read from a survivor is shuddering. As he said, “It was hell.” Real hell, with demonically possessed killers shooting every Christian in sight. Fifty-eight dead, more than seventy wounded. The man relating the story ends his interview with questions about the half-hearted response of the Iraqi police. It took five hours before they showed up. And their rescue operation was slipshod at best, perhaps deliberately so. In the end he laments the obvious: “Being a Christian in Iraq means you are persecuted for your faith. We want the world to know. We can no longer bear this violence.”
CatholicOnline: “It was a Sunday and evening mass had just begun. Shortly after the Gospel reading, about 17.15, we heard the sound of gunfire outside the church. Don Tha’er, who was celebrating the liturgy, tried to calm everyone down, telling us to pray together. The noise became louder, then we heard a loud explosion and the terrorists entered the Church – five or six in all – and started shooting everywhere”. Full interview with Asia News here.
