Thank you, thank you. All praise and honor and glory goes to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that very statement in the Middle East and many parts of northern Africa, I’d be beheaded or shot in the head, or crucified. And so, it really means a lot to me to actually get recognition on behalf of the Christian refugees and those being persecuted today, but I don’t deserve it. It doesn’t belong with me, it’s actually more about what everybody’s trying to do. Bishop Francis appointed me to the (board), which I think is the most honorable position I’ve ever had in my lifetime, he has a great group behind him; humanitarian groups like ACC, you deserve this award. You do this day, every day. 

We have a saying in the Catholic church where we’re all part of the mystical body of Jesus Christ the church, so when one part of our body hurts, we all hurt. Right now, our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are all hurting, and I ask you just to pray for them and to continue supporting groups like the ACC. All the refugees are important whether they’re Iraqi refugees, Syrian refugees, any refugees, so I just ask you to open up your hearts. 

But keep one thing in mind, and this really bothers me for a kid that was born in Baghdad, to know that the country that I live in and I love was responsible for the pretty much the disintegration of Christianity in the country that I was born in. Now think about that for a second. So we do have a moral obligation to help the refugees, especially those that don’t have a home. 

Keep in mind the Middle East is a big place. There’s 40 countries in the Middle East that are governed by Sharia law, but there’s a very small portion of Christians, and that number is getting less and less. In 2003 we had 1.4 million Iraqi Christians, today we have less than 200,000. And who knows what we’ll have tomorrow. But thank God for the U.S., thank God for other countries because this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, so God bless you all and thank you so much for Haifa and the Board of Directors.