Two Iraqi priests concerned country slipping into chaos under U.S.

Published: 2003-11-17

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Two Iraqi priests said they are deeply concerned that their country is slipping into chaos and terrorist violence under U.S. occupation. One of the priests said Catholic institutions were being targeted for intimidation in the northern part of the country, presumably by Muslim extremists. The priests made their comments in interviews in mid-November with the Vatican missionary news agency, Fides. "We do not want Iraq to be another Palestine -- without a state, abandoned and left to the mercy of terrorist groups, and its people dying of hunger," said Father Denka H. Toma, superior general of a Chaldean-rite order of 45 monks. "Everything depends on the United States, which has absolute power. It can do our nation good or cause it harm," he said.

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