Detroit, Mich., Nov 3, 2010 / 00:54 am
“It is only speculation,” Fr. Safaa Habash said, “an opinion.” Still, he couldn't help but wonder about the timing of the October 31 attack that killed or wounded most of the 120 worshipers at Baghdad's Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation.
The attack came one week after the end of a historic gathering of Middle Eastern bishops in Rome. It was the worst violence against Christians in Iraq, since war came to their country in 2003.
“The Synod of Bishops called on the Christians and Muslims to come together to make a dialogue, and to open bridges between each community,” the Iraqi-born, Michigan-based Syriac Catholic priest recounted.
“But those people,” he said in reference to the terrorists, “they try to give a response to that Synod of Bishops … ” Fr. Safaa went on to describe the attackers as “brainwashed”-- “mercenaries” with “no principles.” One of the suicide attackers, he had heard, was about twelve years old.