In a home for people who know something about suffering, in a nation that has seen more than its share, the death of Pope John Paul II was greeted Sunday with peace. For the pope, the suffering was over.
“He was struggling so much,” said Sister Alhan Smith Nihab, 33, a Syrian Catholic nun who runs Annia’s House, a home for the sick and disabled in Baghdad. “We greeted his death with acceptance.”
Baghdad Christians praised the pope’s teachings against war and for forgiveness.
Youssif Khalid Mikha, 36, a hotel desk clerk, supported the pope’s strong stand against the war in Iraq.
“Even if we consider that Saddam [Hussein] is evil, how can we consider fighting evil with evil?” Mikha said. “War is evil.”
Christians have lived in what is now Iraq almost since Christianity was born. But tens of thousands of Christians have fled Iraq in the last several years.
Asked how her community responded to the pope’s death, Dalal Salim responded, “What community?”
“There are only two Christian families in my neighborhood now,” said Salim, 56.
Salim said she watched news of the pope’s death on television Saturday night–switching to a Lebanese satellite channel when she could find nothing about it on Iraqi TV–and gathered with her children to cry and mourn.
She then waited for Baghdad’s churches to ring their bells in honor of the pontiff.
“None of the churches did it,” Salim said. “They are all too scared.”
For Marines in Iraq, news of John Paul II’s death also was marked by the quiet with which it was received.
“It seemed surreal, because you’re not with everyone else to mourn, with other Catholics,” said Staff Sgt. Joseph Davila, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Marines’ stronghold in Al Qaim is a converted railyard. Davila and two other Catholics said the rosary in the base chapel, a converted railcar.
Second Lt. Christopher Warner, 28, said the pope’s death has particular resonance here.
“Death is something we deal with daily,” he said. “The Marines watching the news, maybe they weren’t Catholic, but they recognize that he was someone who deserved respect–a leader.”
