"Pray for peace in the Middle East," he said, "particularly Iraq and Syria, because we live in very difficult conditions. We need the international community's attention because the evil demonic forces have expelled us from our homes and villages."
He likened ISIS to bandits in the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible and said "we heard in Mass today the story of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10: 25-37]. Our Christian people are have fallen into the hands of road bandits, but with the difference that the man in the story found mercy but we did not find mercy, what has happened to us has not been seen before, where they try to rip us from our land that we have owned for more than two thousand years, even before Christianity we were in Iraq, Syria and Turkey and other places."
He continued, "In Mosul and villages in the Nineveh Plain they expelled our people and robbed them and pillaged all their possessions and forced them to go out on foot in high temperatures. Now there are more than 120,000 displaced people and many of them homeless. ISIS is ruthless and merciless, they are trying to rip our roots from the ground. For the first time in two thousand years there are no Mass prayers in Mosul and the villages in the Nineveh Plain."
Bishop Warduni criticized the silence by the international community on the ongoing genocide in North Iraq, saying "We ask for prayers in our name and for you to be like the Good Samaritan now. After raising our voices we appealed to the International community and the Security Council and all the institutions to do something for the liberation of villages in the Nineveh Plain. If they are not liberated from ISIS it will become difficult for our Assyrian people to return and live there."
Reporting by Santa Mikhail.
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