Scottish Catholic Observer

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow has written to parishes asking for special prayers to be said this weekend for peace in Iraq and throughout the world where humanitarian crises rage.

The archbishop (above), who is president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, will celebrate the 12 noon Mass on Sunday in St Andrew’s Cathedral for peace in Iraq, in Syria and for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Gaza conflict. He has asked for prayers for the Iraqi people and peace to be said at all Masses this Sunday.

“We have all watched with grave concern the developing situation in Northern Iraq,” the archbishop says in his letter. “In recent days the Holy Father has made repeated pleas both the international community to promote dialogue and to the Catholic community to be united in prayer with the persecuted communities in Iraq… In response to the Holy Father’s request, I urge you to pray for peace in Iraq and throughout the world in a special way at Mass on Sunday.”

Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Mennini recently wrote to Archbishop Tartaglia expressing Pope Francis’ wishes for the clergy and laity in Scotland to offer practical and spiritual support to those suffering in Northern Iraq and surrounding areas, where many Christians have been forced to flee their homes to escape from the Islamic State extremists.

At a Mass last Sunday to commemorate Britain’s entry into the First World War Sunday Archbishop Tartaglia said: “Men have not yet fully learned the lessons of the Great War. There are wars and conflicts raging even now.”

Archbishop Tartaglia joins Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen who made an appeal to his congregation last weekend to pray for the people of Iraq, to donate to charities helping in the region and to lobby their MPs ‘to put an end to this tragedy.’

Canon Andrew White, known as the ‘vicar of Baghdad,’ has said that the plight of Christian Iraqis is now desperate and that Britain should open its doors to them as an urgent priority.

“Britain has rejected any Iraqis coming in at all,” Canon White said. “But now things are desperate… it’s a life and death situation. We really need people to be allowed in here.”

The Australian Government has opened its humanitarian refugee programme to Iraqi Christians and Yazidis in response to the crisis in Iraq.

—Full reports on Bishop Gilbert’s appeal and developments in Iraq, see tomorrow’s Scottish Catholic Observer in parishes