Dr. John McAreavey:

I thank the Vice Chairman and members of the joint committee for the invitation to attend this morning.

I am Catholic bishop of Dromore and am based in Newry. I am chair of the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Bishops' Conference. I am joined by Ms Áine O'Reilly, a member of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. This is a Catholic charitable organisation that provides solidarity and financial support to the Christian communities in the Holy Land. The organisation has in excess of 200 members in Ireland and more than 30,000 members world-wide. I am also joined by Fr. Timothy Bartlett, an adviser to the council. I am glad to be here this morning with Trócaire, Open Doors and Church in Chains.

The ongoing persecution of Christians is an issue that unites all Christians. Pope Francis has referred to it as ecumenism of suffering. The breadth and scale of this suffering is unprecedented. The Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in the United States estimates that 100,000 Christians are being killed every year because of their faith. That is eleven every hour. Others are being tortured, imprisoned, exiled, threatened, excluded, attacked and discriminated against on a widespread scale. The Pew Research Centre says that Christianity is now the world's most oppressed religious group with persecution against them reported in 110 countries. Many of these countries have significant trade links with Ireland. Persecution is increasing in China. In North Korea, one quarter of the country's Christians live in forced labour camps. Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Maldives all feature in the ten worst places to be a Christian. According to the International Society for Human Rights, a non-religious organisation, 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians.

As the other groups will explain in more detail, the situation for Christians in the Middle East is particularly acute and shocking. The rise of ISIS has accelerated a brutal religious genocide against Christians and other religious minorities which has been ongoing for well over a decade. The former Chief Rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, recently described this suffering of Christians in the Middle East as "one of the crimes against humanity of our time". He compared it with Jewish pogroms in Europe and said he was: "appalled at the lack of protest it has evoked". I believe many Christians in Ireland, of all denominations, are appalled at the relative lack of attention being given in the Irish media, in political discourse and in government policy and action to the urgent plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East at this time. Children, women and men are being beheaded; young men are being brutalised and left to die on makeshift crosses in town squares in a part of the world once described as the cradle of Christianity and of civilisation itself. Ancient churches and religious monuments from various traditions have been destroyed.

Such barbaric actions call for an urgent co-ordinated and determined response from the international community. They are a threat to our common humanity and to the religious and cultural patrimony of the world for future generations. Such barbaric actions call out for an urgent, coordinated and determined response from the international community. They are a threat to our common humanity and to the religious and cultural patrimony of the world for future generations. Any response will require an honest and comprehensive effort to address the sources of violent conflict that converge on this region and which have wider political and religious implications across the world.

I have spoken to senior representatives of the Christian community in Iraq in recent days. I will quote from a letter which arrived yesterday from the patriarch in Baghdad. His English is not perfect so I will correct it as I read it:

What has happened is like a tsunami of refugees overwhelming us. Hosting 120,000 displaced persons and giving those food, clothing and medicines has not been easy. We thank all churches, agencies and persons who have supported us. Since eight months ago the city of Mosul and the Christian villages are occupied by ISIS. [He writes that its release is not yet clear, so the end of this is not in sight]. The moment of trial that Christians in Iraq are going through requires a deeper communion between the churches to persevere in our land and to witness our Christian values. For such an emergency situation we need of course material assistance for food and health, spiritual encouragement, solidarity visits to displaced Christians and education, particularly for our schools. Also a political assistance for a fair political solution to the country's situation.

Church leaders in the Middle East find it difficult to deal with the silence of the international community. That is why this meeting today is very welcome because it represents the response of civic and political society in Ireland to a very painful and difficult situation and yet, even here, there is a reluctance, including on the part of Christian-based international aid agencies, to give direct support to minority religious communities, including to the Christian churches. If these churches are to remain and if they are to draw strength from one another and continue their own religious, educational and charitable activities in the places where they live and work and where they have contributed for millennia to the shared educational, economic and cultural patrimony of their countries, then they need direct aid. I am aware that direct aid to churches from State bodies and agencies is not always simple and yet mechanisms can be worked out with the appropriate accountability. These churches have a right to be supported in rebuilding their bombed-out churches, schools, hospitals and halls that are availed of by the whole community. They have a right to receive support in building bomb-proof walls and security around these buildings and their homes. They are also best placed to ensure humanitarian support gets to those who need it most in the villages, towns and refugees camps where the local church continues to be present. Perhaps because of a fear of being seen as less than secular in their own country, many governments of majority Christian countries in the West are often reluctant to give direct aid to churches and religious minorities in the Middle East, in particular.