A Global Day of Prayer for Peace is being organised for August 6, the feast of the Transfiguration.
The international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need and Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Rafael Sako of Iraq appealed to all people of good will to join in.
A statement from Aid to the Church in Need described the Transfiguration as holding out a “sign of hope for humanity”.
“It is a source of courage when obstacles appear impossible to surmount; a sign that light is stronger than darkness; and testimony that death can turn into life.”
The statement continued that the global day of prayer for peace is meant to be observed in churches and homes across the US.
“The Global Day of Prayer in the midst of so much suffering in Iraq—particularly for the ancient Christian community of Mosul—tells the world at large that US Christians have not forgotten and abandoned their suffering brothers and sisters,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, a resolution has been introduced into the United States Congress aimed at protecting persecuted Christians and other minorities in Iraq.
ISIS militants took control of Mosul in June, and later issued an ultimatum to Christians in the city insisting they convert to Islam, pay a tax, or be killed.
Thousands of Christians and other religious minorities fled the city, seeking refuge in villages in the Ninevah Plains and Kurdestan.
“We are witnessing an ongoing crime against humanity,” Congressman Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska said in introducing the resolution.
Currently, the bi-partisan resolution has more than 50 co-sponsors.
If passed, the resolution would call on Congress, the US president and secretary of state, and the UN Security Council, to consider “an urgent international humanitarian intervention to speed assistance to communities facing ferocious ethnic and religious cleansing,” Fortenberry explained.
The US Catholic bishops have urged their government to assist Iraqi Christian victims of persecution from ISIS miliants, while France has offered asylum to Iraqi Christians who have fled Mosul.
Sources
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