The 2003 U.S. invasion not only destroyed Iraq, but also destroyed Christianity in Iraq. American Catholics have a special obligation to offer assistance to Christians in that part of the world.

It is not enough for American Bishops to urge the U.S. government to provide “humanitarian aid.” The Bishops need to lead the charge for a nationwide Catholic campaign to open the gates for tens of thousands of Iraqi, Syrian and Middle Eastern Christians who should be granted asylum and resettled in America. The Bishops should ask the 60 to 70 million American Catholics to contribute time and money and to organize massive relief and assistance for refugee families at the parish level.

Here are a couple articles that pull no punches about our responsibilities in the matter:

– – from France, Friend Of Iraqi Christians by Rod Dreher:

“And what of our nation, whose previous government did so much to ruin the lives of Iraq’s Christians? Why is Washington silent? Is their no room in our country for Christians whose families have been in Iraq for nearly 2,000 years — until the US invasion caused the condition that led to their exile?

Ours is a big country, filled with well-off and not-so-well-off churches that would surely be willing to help resettle and support these refugee families. In my little Louisiana town, I bet we could put together enough support from the parish’s churches to support an Iraqi Christian refugee family. As a Christian and an American, it is a matter of shame to me that France, which did not participate in the war that has resulted in the destruction of Iraqi Christianity, a secular nation where relatively few people go to church, is opening its doors to these displaced and persecuted Christians.

 Why not us?

What is wrong with us?”

– – from “Conservatives” Silent on the Genocide of Christians in the Middle East by Christopher Manion:

“Christian leaders in Iraq have put the blame for these atrocities squarely on George W. Bush and his invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.

Half a million Christians have fled Mosul. Any who remain will be slaughtered.

Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, head of Iraq’s Catholic Church, says that the invasion did what Moslems couldn’t do in 1500 years: destroy Christianity in Iraq.

Thus, Republicans are afraid. If they acknowledge the genocide, they fear that people will remember that it was their war that led to it. So they are silent.

Democrats are too busy attacking Christianity in the U.S.

So both parties, corrupt to the core, are silent on this holocaust.”