ICC Note: The UK’s Prince of Wales shared his deep emotional response to what is happening to Christians in Iraq at the hands of the brutal militants of ISIS. The letter was sent to Archbishop Louis Sako. This is simply the latest in world leaders decrying their acts, but the actions that the international community will take to assist and defend these communities are still unclear.
09/03/2014 Iraq (Telegraph) – The Prince of Wales has written an impassioned letter to Christians in Iraq speaking of his “heartbreak” at their suffering at the hands of Jihadists.
He condemned the atrocities by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) as “diabolic evil” and spoke of his “fervent hope and prayer” for those suffering in the region.
His remarks came as the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of attempts to drive Christianity out its Middle Eastern birthplace as the biggest assault on the faith in the area “since the invasion of Genghis Khan” in the 13th Century.
The Most Rev Justin Welby joined leaders of churches from the Middle East for prayers in Lambeth Palace and a vigil at Westminster Abbey.
He said the “barbarism” of recent weeks was a “new phenomenon”, the enormity of which the West is only now waking up to.
The Prince’s remarks came in a personal letter to Archbishop Louis Sako, the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, the head of the Caldean Catholic Church which stretches across Iraq and Syria and other parts of the region, accompanying a donation through the charity Aid to the Church in Need.
“You can have no idea how heartbroken I am to hear of the truly unbearable and barbaric persecution being suffered not only by the Christians in Iraq, but also by some of their neighbours of other faiths alongside whom you have lived for hundreds of years,” he said.
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