A Sign of Hope
The coincidence of the month of Ramadan and the season of Lent has deep significance for Iraq’s Cardinal Sako
John Adam Fox is chairman of Fellowship and Aid to the Christians of the East (FACE).
This year the month of Ramadan overlaps with the Christian season of Lent. The significance of this coincidence between these two great periods of fasting has not been lost on His Beatitude Louis Raphael Sako, Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, who has just announced in an official message to the Muslim and Christian faithful in Iraq that “it is a sign of hope”.
“On this special occasion”, he said, “I extend my warmest congratulations and best wishes to all Muslims in the Holy Month of Ramadan and to all Christians at the beginning of the Great Lent, with hope that God Almighty will include them all in His merciful and loving care, and grant peace and security to our beloved country and to our neighbours in the wider region”.
The patriarch said that both Ramadan and Lent are “times of fasting, prayer, repentance and forgiveness, purification from vices, almsgiving and charity, and a time of quenching one’s thirst at the fountain of divine values, in the spirit of love and tolerance”.
His Beatitude did not refrain from lamenting that today, not only have so many people turned away from God, the God of love and mercy, but that “people have turned away from each other, from tolerance and forgiveness, and from charity and doing good”.
He recalled that, during this season of fasting, “all believers need the light of God to illumine their hearts and minds so that they can transform God’s will into an honest and righteous lifestyle”.
In his message, Cardinal Sako extends his gaze to his beloved homeland, saying that, for the sake of lasting stability and security in Iraq, there is no other solution than “to submit to the logic of the State and to cooperate with it, so that Iraq can establish justice, the rule of law, national unity, equal citizenship and avoid sectarianism”.
“We will only achieve this by embracing a culture of learning and education that respects all faiths and all peoples in a pluralistic society.”
His Beatitude does not overlook the important role that clergy must play in this process and accordingly concludes his message with a call to the clergy “to urge their faithful to religious and moral values, so that fasting is a choice of the heart and soul, which can become a turning point of conversion and a moment of blessing for the country and the people”.
That Cardinal Sako can address his fellow countrymen – Christian and Muslim alike – with such affectionate concern and heartfelt candour reflects the high esteem in which he is held by the Iraqi people. He is not only an important religious leader who is head of the Chaldean Church (which accounts for 80 per cent of Christians in Iraq) but also a greatly respected moral voice in his nation.
In stark relief to the aggressive diatribe against the patriarch last year which emanated from Rayon Al-Kildani, leader of the Babylon Militia, it was striking how, at the Christmas Mass at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Baghdad last December where the patriarch was celebrant, honoured guests included the Shiite Prime Minister of Iraq and senior Sunni and Shiite Imams: all come to express not only their solidarity with the Christian community but also – as was evident from their speeches of homage before the Mass – their deep affection and admiration for the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad.
