Deir Maryam el-Adhra, Sulaymaniah, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Letter to the Friends of al-Khalil Community

November 23rd, 2012

Dear Friends,

Robbery at Deir Mar Musa

Mariyam al-Aadhra Church, Sulaymaniya-Iraq, 29 May 2012
Houla
Last Friday and Saturday, I watched with complete bewilderment the news. I asked myself sincerely if this is the same country that I have known for nineteen years and in which I lived ten years. Was it really the same country I left some months ago for my new mission here in Kurdish Iraq.

Translation from Arabic

Easter comes after a year of untold suffering, unpredictable and unimaginable for most of us. Unfortunately, what we wrote on the same occasion a year ago still applies to the current situation of our unhappy country. At that time, we had expressed our solidarity with the victims of the conflict and our participation in the expectation of those who were hoping for a deep reform of Syria without falling into the logic of violence, and fearing the explosion of civil war and loss of national unity. Misfortune has reached us and we fear the worst.

h1 class="western">Christmas Letter from Iraqi Kurdistan

Kirkuk, December 20^th, 2011

Dear friends,

Thank you again for the warm welcome I received this fall from the Swiss and Italian members of the associations of friends of our monastic community. It felt good to have you near. Many thanks also for your numerous expressions of solidarity in these turbulent times for the Middle East. Our website's statistics and our “inbox” that you are following us attentive, thank you! The Middle East, and especially Syria, really needs much prayer and solidarity. We are witnessing a continuous rise of violence, and we cannot but call with all our energy to non-violence and reconciliation.

Ai cari figli e figlie, Monaci e Monache della Comunità Monastica di Deir Mar Musa,

Pace e carità nel Signore!

Sulla base della lettera della Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali a Noi indirizzata (prot. 120/84) del 25 Novembre 2006, a proposito del “Tipico del Monastero di San Mosè l’Abissino (Deir Mar Musa el-Habasci, Nebek, Siria) ”,

Avendo questo documento ottenuto il nulla osta da parte della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede per mezzo della Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali,

Successivamente allo studio di questo Tipico da parte della Commissione Episcopale, comprendente, oltre all’Arcivescovo George Kassab, il Corepiscopo Michel Nuaman, il Padre Rami Qabalan, il Monaco Padre Yaaqub Murad e il Monaco Padre Jihad Youssef,

Abbiamo deciso di approvare ciò che, estratto dalla totalità dei canoni del Tipico suddetto, abbiamo ritenuto per oggi sufficiente, e che porta il titolo di “Regole monastiche di Deir Mar Musa el-Habasci, Nebek, Siria”.

Saturday, August 27^th 2011

1) First, we wish to thank all our friends for the great solidarity expressed towards our monastery and our country, in those difficult conditions that we can stand only with the help of your cordial prayers, the support of your commitment and the effectiveness of your gifts.