“Christianity in Iraq means emigration, the persecution within the country that makes us feel strangers at home. In nearly 40 years, over 4000 Christian villages have been wiped out; in the last three years, over 20 churches in the country have been destroyed or forced to close down”. This is reported by father Douglas Dawood in an interview on the website of the Migrants’ Pastoral Office of the archdiocese of Turin (migrantitorino.it). Father Dawood, who since 1st October 2007 has worked with the parish of san Vincenzo Ferreri in Moncalieri, is the first Chaldean priest who has consistently been working in a Latin diocese under an exchange plan promoted by the Turin’s archdiocese, which has launched several initiatives in support of the Iraqi Chaldean clergy.
“The Christians who used to live in the North and who had migrated to the centre and south have now been forced to go back there in the attempt to escape the dangers they are threatened by – explains father Dawood, who in November 2006 was abducted and released 9 days later – Many fled abroad and many who could not leave Baghdad had to leave their homes and move to safer neighbourhoods, thus losing their homes, jobs, memories. Right now, the safest area is the Kurdistan region, where many Christians have moved to escape abuse. Of course there are problems, the prices are very high and it is not easy to find a job. In that area – I can testify to that as I lived and worked there before I came to Turin –, with the help of the Finance Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, Sarkis Aghajan, a Christian, over 1000 villages, roads, churches, surgeries, schools have been built, buses have been provided to drive the students to school, as well as power generators, which are an extremely valuable asset in Iraq. Of course everything is not perfect, but facing the problem of dozens of refugees without a home, a job or money is not easy. After all, many of those people would be dead now if they could not have moved to the north and be helped”.