Pagine

30 settembre 2016

La Chiesa caldea: dal coraggio del Papa la nostra forza

By Radiovaticana

Un appuntamento di natura del tutto spirituale col pensiero rivolto ai cristiani martiri della Siria e all’Iraq. E’ quanto si attende dall’incontro del Papa con la comunità assiro caldea, riunita a Tbilisi venerdì, primo giorno della visita del Pontefice in Georgia. Nella Chiesa di San Simone sarà presente anche gran parte del Sinodo caldeo dall’Iraq guidato dal patriarca Sako. L’emozione è tanta nelle parole del parroco padre Benny Beth Yadegar che presenterà la comunità al Papa:

La comunità è frutto di una emigrazione dell’inizio del secolo scorso dall’Iran e dalla Turchia, dei caldei cattolici e non cattolici scappati allora dai curdi e dai turchi. Ci sono anche degli immigrati venuti dalla Siria e dall’Iraq. Sono cristiani e non avevano nient’altro che la chiesa. Quando sono arrivati qui, hanno visto solo le chiese , la croce e i campanili, e hanno deciso di rimanere.
Ci sono state delle difficoltà?
Sì, qui in Chiesa sono arrivate quasi 25 famiglie. Abbiamo pagato loro un anno e quattro mesi di affitto della casa, medicinali, vitto, alloggio, tutto perché potessero poi andare in Europa. Ma tutte le ambasciate europee ci hanno risposto che eravano fuori da una zona di pericolo, che qui in Georgia nessuno li avrebbe ammazzati o cacciati via, e quindi hanno detto loro di rimanere. Ma rimanere come? Non davano alcun aiuto! I fondi che la Chiesa usa per aiutare un po’ questa comunità vengono tutti dall’estero. La maggior parte dei soldi vengono dalla comunità caldea che ormai si è stabilita negli Stati Uniti: sono loro che danno un grande aiuto a questa comunità.
Proprio dagli Stati Uniti, ma anche da altre parti del mondo, arriveranno in tanti per questo incontro con il Papa: cosa rappresenta per voi questo momento?
È la prima volta nella storia, da quanto ci risulta, che un Papa entra in una chiesa caldea-cattolica. C’è tanta emozione, e anche tanto lavoro da fare. C’è poi il Sinodo con i patriarchi che arriveranno: saranno con noi quindici vescovi, sacerdoti, monache…
Un segno importante quindi il suo solo ingresso nella vostra comunità…
Sì, perché anche il Papa ha detto immediatamente che sarebbe venuto a visitare la comunità “anche se piccola” ha detto “sono sempre i miei figli”.-E questa è stata una gioia immensa per noi, e anche una cosa giusta: insomma, noi siamo cristiani – siamo cattolici – e rappresentiamo delle tradizioni molto antiche in Oriente. Abbiamo vissuto tutte le difficoltà delle persecuzioni, e abbiamo visto molto sangue e anche tante distruzioni. E quindi era anche giusto avere accanto il padre della nostra Chiesa: che viene a visitare la nostra comunità e a darci il coraggio, confermarci nella nostra fede.
Sarà un momento soprattutto di preghiera. In che modo pregherete?
Il Papa vuole ascoltare le preghiere di questa gente. Abbiamo dieci-dodici minuti per pregare con i Salmi, alcuni inni dei martiri del II, III, IV secolo e con le melodie antichissime, canti dalla profonda meditazione, fede e coraggio.
Padre Beniamino, le intenzioni profonde nei vostri cuori, di questa preghiera, quali sono?
Prima di tutto, vogliamo far sapere a tutto il mondo che tutte le persecuzioni e i disastri che accadono in Medio Oriente non ci cambiano, perché solo la bontà alla fine vincerà la violenza. E vogliamo anche attirare l’attenzione del Papa su tutti i caldei immigrati in questi ultimi anni, dalla prima guerra contro l’Iraq fino ad oggi: sono dispersi in tutta Europa – dalla Grecia fino al Nord Europa – e sono senza un pastore, un vescovo o una diocesi. Se avremo una chiesa caldea un po’ più forte in Europa, potremmo forse ancora per i prossimi 100-150 anni salvare queste tradizioni antichissime: pregheremo per questo. E poi, quando il Papa è con noi, ciò vuol dire che tutta la comunità cristiana - cattolica - del mondo è con noi. Ecco, vogliamo far capire anche questo alla gente: che siamo uniti con Roma, con tutta la comunità cristiana, e abbiamo bisogno del loro appoggio spirituale e del loro incoraggiamento.
L’Anno della Misericordia nella vostra comunità come lo state vivendo e che cosa sta significando per voi proprio la misericordia?
Praticamente lo abbiamo vissuto con i profughi in modo concreto. Tutto quello che avevamo lo abbiamo diviso con loro. Spesso abbiamo fatto delle preghiere per la pace e a volte abbiamo anche invitato dei musulmani che venivano dall’Iran per non far crescere un odio cieco contro una religione, perché questo non risolve assolutamente niente. Quello che ci unisce è molto, molto più grande di quello che semplicemente ci divide.

Intervento del cardinale Parolin sulla situazione in Siria e Iraq. La priorità è fermare la violenza

By L'Osservatore Romano in Il Sismografo blogspot

Mettere fine alle violenze e fermare una volta per tutte le armi in Siria e Iraq, per poter aiutare le popolazioni che sono allo stremo a causa di un conflitto devastante e prolungato: ecco la priorità assoluta della Santa Sede espressa dal cardinale segretario di Stato Pietro Parolin che, giovedì 29 settembre, è intervenuto alla quinta riunione di coordinamento per gli organismi caritativi cattolici impegnati in quelle regioni insieme alle Chiese locali. Ad aprire il tavolo di lavoro, organizzato dal Pontificio Consiglio Cor Unum, era stato il Papa, ricevendo tutti i partecipanti, a cominciare da Staffan de Mistura, inviato speciale del segretario generale dell’Onu per la Siria.
Rilanciando le parole del Pontefice, e ricordando il grande impegno in prima linea delle entità ecclesiali in Siria e Iraq, il porporato ha presentato un’analisi del conflitto e ha indicato le priorità della Santa Sede. In questi anni, ha affermato, «è mancata la volontà politica non tanto di affrontare il problema quanto di risolverlo; non è invece mancata la volontà di far sentire la voce delle armi». E «se il conflitto attuale nella regione è nato come una crisi politica in Siria, con il passare del tempo ha assunto altre connotazioni».
Di fatto «la persecuzione dei cristiani e di altre minoranze religiose è uno dei molti fenomeni gravi legati alla creazione del cosiddetto califfato, che ha esteso le ramificazioni ad altri paesi della regione». Tutto ciò «viene da una visione fondamentalista della religione, che è inaccettabile». Il cardinale ha denunciato anche che «un altro fattore problematico legato a questa crisi riguarda il flusso migratorio e i rifugiati».
Una questione, ha auspicato, da affrontare «in modo non ideologico, tenendo presente sia il momento contingente dell’urgenza sia quello, a più lungo termine, di un eventuale ritorno o di un’integrazione». Ma la prima cosa da fare in Siria e Iraq, ha detto il segretario di Stato, «è porre fine alla violenza: la comunità internazionale, al di là dei cessate-il-fuoco temporanei, che sono indubbiamente utili, deve continuare a ricercare il dialogo e il negoziato, in vista di una soluzione a questa crisi». «La Santa Sede — ha spiegato — ribadisce che, di fronte a un conflitto così complesso, non ci possono essere soluzioni militari ma solo soluzioni politiche.
Ciò significa che bisogna attenersi saldamente a due principi di base: il rilancio di un percorso di dialogo e di riconciliazione e la salvaguardia dell’unità nazionale dei paesi interessati, evitando divisioni su base sociale, religiosa o etnica». Per il cardinale, inoltre, «si deve garantire che nella nuova Siria e nel nuovo Iraq ci sia uno spazio per tutti, anche per le minoranze etniche e religiose». Del resto «la soluzione ai conflitti in Medio oriente esige il rispetto dei diritti delle minoranze e del loro apporto specifico nella costruzione della società, il rispetto della libertà religiosa e la disponibilità a rinunciare a qualcosa di personale per edificare il bene comune».
«Una questione estremamente delicata — ha affermato — è la presenza sul territorio di gruppi terroristici, con i quali probabilmente non è possibile giungere a una soluzione negoziata». In proposito la Santa Sede ribadisce «l’iniquità del commercio delle armi che permettono a questi gruppi di proseguire la loro azione». In ogni caso, «la soluzione al problema del terrorismo deve essere il frutto di una concertazione» nell’ambito dell’Onu. Nel rivolgere un particolare pensiero alle comunità cristiane, il segretario di Stato ha chiesto infine che venga garantito «l’accesso agli aiuti umanitari nella zona di conflitto» pensando all’assistenza materiale e spirituale, al sostegno della famiglia e all’educazione.

Il Patriarca caldeo: dirò al Papa che lo aspettiamo in Iraq, ne abbiamo bisogno


“Nell'incontro che avremo stasera con Papa Francesco non ci saranno discorsi, ci sarà una preghiera, e spero che lui ci dica una parola di incoraggiamento. Io dirò al Santo Padre: speriamo in una sua prossima visita in Iraq. Lì abbiamo bisogno della sua presenza e del suo sostegno”. Così racconta all'Agenzia Fides il Patriarca caldeo Louis Raphael I Sako, descrivendo i sentimenti con cui lui, insieme a Vescovi, sacerdoti, religiosi, religiose e fedeli caldei, si preparano all'incontro con il Successore di Pietro, in programma questa sera alle 18, ora locale, a Tiblisi, nella chiesa di san Simone Bar Sabbae.
All'incontro con il Papa – riferisce il Patriarca Sako – saranno presenti 12 Vescovi caldei, reduci dal Sinodo annuale appena celebrato a Erbil, capitale del Kurdistan iracheno. Oltre ai fedeli della folta comuità assiro-caldea presente in Georgia, ad accogliere Papa Francesco ci saranno anche gruppi di fedeli caldei provenienti dagli Usa, dalla Francia e dal Canada, insieme a un gruppo di caldei che attualmente vivono in Iraq nella condizione di rifugiati, dopo aver dovuto abbandonare le loro case davanti all'avanzata dei jihadisti dello Stato Islamico. Durante la cerimonia, saranno recitati i vepri in lingua caldea.
In Georgia vivono circa 10mila cristiani appartenenti alle comunità caldee e assire. Il loro iniziale radicamento nel Caucaso risale ai flussi migratori registratisi già nella prima metà del XIX secolo, e potenziatisi all'inizio del XX secolo, con le persecuzioni subita anche da assiri e caldei durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale. “L'incontro con il Successore di Pietro” ha dichiarato all'Agenzia Fides il Patriarca caldeo “sarà un momento forte, e lo vivremo per essere confermati nella fede, nella speranza e anche nella scelta di perseverare e rimanere nella nostra terra martoriata”. 

Papa in Georgia: prega per Siria e Iraq e per “i popoli sfiniti dalle bombe”


Una preghiera nella quale sono stati ricordati “i popoli sfiniti dalle bombe” ed è stato chiesto “solleva dalla devastazione l’Iraq e la Siria” ha concluso la prima giornata del viaggio del Papa in Georgia. Dopo la visita al Patriarcato ortodosso, infatti, Francesco si è recato nella chiesa di San Simone Bar Sabbae, dove era riunita la comunità assiro-caldea, compresi i vescovi del sinodo. Ad accoglierlo il patriarca di Babilonia dei Caldei, Louis Raphaël Sako.
Dopo l’esecuzione di un canto e la recita di una preghiera in aramaico, Francesco ha recitato una preghiera per la pace che ha composto per l’occasione: “Signore Gesù,/ adoriamo la tua croce,/ che ci libera dal peccato, origine di ogni divisione e di ogni male; / annunciamo la tua risurrezione, / che riscatta l’uomo dalla schiavitù del fallimento e della morte; / attendiamo la tua venuta nella gloria, / che porta a compimento il tuo regno di giustizia, di gioia e di pace.
Signore Gesù, / per la tua gloriosa passione, / vinci la durezza dei cuori, prigionieri dell’odio e dell’egoismo; / per la potenza della tua risurrezione, / strappa dalla loro condizione le vittime dell’ingiustizia e della sopraffazione; / per la fedeltà della tua venuta, / confondi la cultura della morte e fa’ risplendere il trionfo della vita.
Signore Gesù, / unisci alla tua croce le sofferenze di tante vittime innocenti: / i bambini, gli anziani, i cristiani perseguitati; / avvolgi con la luce della Pasqua chi è ferito nel profondo: / le persone abusate, private della libertà e della dignità; / fa’ sperimentare la stabilità del tuo regno a chi vive nell’incertezza: /
gli esuli, i profughi, chi ha smarrito il gusto della vita.
Signore Gesù, / stendi l’ombra della tua croce sui popoli in guerra: / imparino la via della riconciliazione, del dialogo e del perdono; / fa’ gustare la gioia della tua risurrezione ai popoli sfiniti dalle bombe: / solleva dalla devastazione l’Iraq e la Siria; / riunisci sotto la tua dolce regalità i tuoi figli dispersi: / sostieni i cristiani della diaspora e dona loro l’unità della fede e dell’amore.
Vergine Maria, regina della pace, / tu che sei stata ai piedi della croce, / ottieni dal tuo Figlio il perdono dei nostri peccati; / tu che non hai mai dubitato della vittoria della risurrezione, / sostieni la nostra fede e la nostra speranza; / tu che siedi regina nella gloria, / insegnaci la regalità del servizio e la gloria dell’amore . Amen”.

Pope Francis in Georgia: prayer for peace

By Vatican Radio

Pope Francis is currently on an Apostolic journey to Georgia. He flew into the nation's capital Tbilisi on Friday 30th of September and his third and last appointment of the day took place at the Chaldean Catholic Church of Simon 'Bar Sabbae', dedicated to a tenth century Coptic Saint. There he met with representatives of the Assyrian Chaldean community.
Upon his arrival at the Church the Pope was greeted by the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans and the local parish priest. Together they entered the Church in procession, making their way towards the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament therein. .
Among those present were around three hundred faithful from the Assyrian Chaldean 'Diaspora'. Not just from the nation's capital but also from nearby towns and villages. For the record the Catholic Assyrian Chaldean mission in Georgia was instituted in 1995 under Vatican jurisdiction and from that year on the Chaldean rite was celebrated in the nation. But it was only in 2004 that the growing number of Chaldean parishioners prompted the construction of the Church of Saint Simon.
So it was in this Church on Friday that celebrations took place, beginning with sacred music and prayers in Aramaic. That's before Pope Francis himself prayed for peace in the world.
Speaking in Italian he implored the Lord to save the victims of injustice and maltreatment from their suffering, to confound the culture of death and make the triumph of life shine forth, to unite to His Cross the sufferings of the many innocent victims: the children, the elderly, and the persecuted Christians. Envelop in Paschal light, he went on to implore, those who are deeply wounded, those who are abused and deprived of freedom and dignity. May those who live in uncertainty experience the enduring constancy of your kingdom, be they exiles, refugees or those who have lost the joy of living. Lord Jesus, he continued, cast forth the shadow of Your Cross over peoples at war, may they learn the way of reconciliation, dialogue and forgiveness. May peoples, so wearied by bombing, experience the joy of Your Rresurrection and raise up Iraq and Syria from devastation, reunite your dispersed children under Your gentle kingship.
Finally before asking Our Lady to intercede in faith and hope Pope Francis asked the Lord to sustain Christians in the 'Diaspora' and grant them unity of faith and love. And only then at the end of his first day in Georgia after praying for peace, in a symbolic gesture he released a dove into the evening air.


Please find below a translation of the Prayer for Peace of His Holiness Pope Francis delivered at the Catholic Chaldean Church of Saint Simon Bar Sabbae

(Tbilisi, 30 September 2016)

Lord Jesus,
we adore your cross
which frees us from sin, the origin of every division and evil;
we proclaim your resurrection,
which ransoms man from the slavery of failure and death;
we await your coming in glory,
which will bring to fulfilment your kingdom of justice, joy and peace.

Lord Jesus,

by your glorious passion,
conquer the hardness of our hearts, imprisoned by hatred and selfishness;
by the power of your resurrection,
save the victims of injustice and maltreatment from their suffering;
by the fidelity of your coming,
confound the culture of death and make the triumph of life shine forth.

Lord Jesus,
unite to your cross the sufferings of the many innocent victims:
the children, the elderly, and the persecuted Christians;
envelop in paschal light those who are deeply wounded:
abused persons, deprived of freedom and dignity;
let those who live in uncertainty experience the enduring constancy of your kingdom: the exiles, refugees, and those who have lost the joy of living.

Lord Jesus,
cast forth the shadow of your cross over peoples at war;
may they learn the way of reconciliation, dialogue and forgiveness;
let the peoples so wearied by bombing experience the joy of your resurrection:
raise up Iraq and Syria from devastation;
reunite your dispersed children under your gentle kingship:
sustain Christians in the Diaspora and grant them the unity of faith and love.

O Virgin Mary, Queen of peace,
you who stood at the foot of the cross,
obtain from your Son pardon for our sins;
you who never doubted the victory of his resurrection,
sustain our faith and our hope;
you who are enthroned as Queen in glory,
teach us the royal road of service and the glory of love.
Amen.

Pope shines spotlight on suffering of Christians in Syria, Iraq

By Vatican Radio

Pope Francis will shine the spotlight on the suffering Christian communities in Syria and Iraq as he visits a Chaldean church in Georgia at the start of his 16th pastoral journey abroad.
On the first day of his September 30th to October 2nd visit to the Caucuses region, the Pope will have an important encounter at the Syro-Chaldean church of St Simon the Tanner in Tbilisi, with members of one of the three different rites that make up the small Catholic community in Georgia.
There he will meet with Chaldean bishops from all over the world led by their Patriarch Louis Sako from the Iraqi capital Baghdad. It will be a profoundly spiritual encounter as the Pope joins the Church leaders in prayer for the suffering people of Syria and Iraq, so many of whom have been driven out of their ancestral lands by so-called Islamic State militants.
Cardinal Fernando Filoni is head of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and before that he served as Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq for five years during the Gulf War. Pope Francis has also sent him on humanitarian missions to provide support for Iraqi refugees who have fled from the conflict in their country.
Cardinal Filoni talked to Philippa Hitchen about the importance of the Pope’s encounter in Georgia and about the possibility of peaceful coexistence throughout the Middle East region….
Cardinal Filoni says this encounter is important because many of these patriarchs, bishops and archbishops, met together recently in Amman and will be reporting back to the Holy Father about their concerns and considerations, their preoccupations and their difficulties. “They will present their point of view”, he says and they will listen to the message that the Pope brings to them.
“We don’t think that we can magically solve these problems”, the cardinal says, but the Pope’s presence represents “a good opportunity for our Catholic community to feel they are not forgotten or abandoned”. Though we cannot solve all the material problems, he insists, it is important that “they feel they are at the heart of the Church”, that the Pope is listening to them and that “they are not abandoned. Psychologically, it is very important”, he adds.
Cardinal Filoni says it is not just a problem of the effects of the bombs in Syria and Iraq today but also about the future of Christians in that part of the world. “This is the land where it is possible to live together”, he says, stressing that “it has happened for centuries and we are sure it could happen today”, provided there is the “good will and participation of all, especially the minorities”. In the past, he says, those minorities have felt abandoned or felt the desire to take revenge for situations they have suffered.
Pope Francis, the cardinal concludes, will offer Chaldean Catholics “a word of reconciliation and understanding, but also of justice and rights”.

Tortured Iraqi priest grieves for his flock


Newly-arrived Chaldean Catholic priest Fr Douglas Al-Bazi still feels a little guilty for leaving Iraq for New Zealand.
There is so much work to do in his parish church, Mar-Elia, in Erbil, northern Iraq with so many people to take care of.
“When ISIS attacked Mosul (in 2014), we received overnight people from four dioceses. Four dioceses were destroyed in Mosul,” Fr Al-Bazi said.
“My day is about taking care of 11,000 families, over 75,000 people individuals. Till now, it’s two years, we (the Catholic Church and organisations) are providing everything,” he added.
Born and ordained in Baghdad, Fr Al-Bazi has seen and experienced it all.
“We were 1.7 million Christians in Iraq. Now, we are less than 200,000. After 2003 and the invasion of Americans in my country, a lot of things changed,” he said.
A sectarian war was marked by extreme violence between two Muslim groups: the Shias and the Sunnis. The Christians were caught in the middle.
“They started attacking and targeting Christian churches and clergy. They blew up my church in front of me. Twice, I survived explosions close to my car. And I got shot by AK-47. After that, I had been kidnapped for nine days,” Fr Al-Bazi said, matter-of-factly.
That happened in 2006.
“They were not called ISIS then,” he said. For years, he never talked about his experiences at the hands of his captors.
“I was silent for many, many years. I started talking about my story when the Islamic State destroyed Mosul and when they forced my people to leave,” he said.
Up to now, Fr Al-Bazi said, he is still traumatised by the experience.
The new parish priest of St Addai Chaldean Catholic Church, Papatoetoe first came to New Zealand in July and stayed at his sister’s home, and she left a bottle of water at his bedside table. That made him smile.
“I never go to my bed without making sure there is a bottle of water. Why? Because when I was kidnapped, they left me without water for four days,” he said.
He still has nightmares as well as “day-mares”.
“When I hear the Quran,” he said, shaking his head softly, ”I remember when they were torturing me, beating me as they read the Quran aloud. I may hear someone loading the gun, loading pistol and put it in my head. I hear click, click, click.”
“They were really tough. They used the hammer (on me). They broke my teeth, my nose and they broke also one of my back discs,” he recalled.
He kept calm by praying the rosary. He noticed that between his chained hands, there were ten chain links hanging. He used this to pray Hail Mary’s.
On the wall of the room in which he was kept, the priest also used the chain links to mark the days he was held captive.
He was released after the Church paid a ransom. He remained in Baghdad until 2013 when he was moved to Erbil.
Blood of martyrs
These days, he tells people not to stop with his story but to look further to the story of his people.
“In Baghdad, we’ve been obliged to write our last will because we never know when we go out from the church if we are coming back,” he said.
It is not tragic, he said, it is just life. Bishops and priests, close friends and former students have been persecuted for their faith.
“This is the cost of being a Christian in Iraq,” he said.
Christianity, he said, was preached in Iraq in the first century. Their history has been one of persecution.
“The blood of our Christian martyrs in Iraq believe me, is more than the oil in Iraq. But no one cares about our martyrs’ blood. They care more about the oil. So, my church has experienced how to survive,” he said.
When babies are born, they pray, “God keep this child. If he is going to be die, let him die normally, naturally, not to be killed because of faith”, he said.
No one blames God, he said, because they know their sufferings are made by men.
“Christianity is not a supermarket: I get in and shop what I like and leave what I don’t like. Christianity is one package: take it or leave it. As Christians in Iraq, we decided for many, many centuries ago to love it,” he said.
Genocide 
Even as he embarks on his new assignment in New Zealand, Fr Al-Bazi said Iraqi Christians will remain in the front and centre of his prayers.
“I believe that Catholic Church has a big heart. But we have to take action. Your brothers and sisters in Christ, there they are facing persecution and genocide.
We have to think seriously to help them,”
he said.
Fr Al-Bazi said the people who fled from Mosul to Erbil are not recognised as refugees, but as internally displaced persons (IDP’s).
“As IDP’s, no one is looking after them,” he said, except for the Catholic Church and Christian agencies such as Caritas, Knights of Columbus, Aid to the Church in Need and World Vision.
Fr Al-Bazi also travels in Europe and the United States drumming up support for Iraqi Christians.
“I will keep talking and talking. What happened to my people is genocide. And we have to give emergency help to the last group of Christians in Iraq who speaks the language of Jesus,” he said.
“If we don’t give help now, please don’t blame my people if they are finished with Iraq. Blame yourself because you were watching while my people are dying.”

Report From Erbil: Christian Refugees' Faith Endures, Amidst a Sea of Troubles


The look in Haney’s eyes reflects both the horror she had experienced and the uncertain future that she faces.
Still visibly frightened and bewildered, the 86-year-old Syriac Catholic recalled how members of the Islamist terrorist organization ISIS raided her house at gunpoint near Mosul, Iraq, in the middle of the night in August 2014 and then proceeded to kidnap both Haney and her son, who looks after her.
A day or so later, they released them, letting them fend for themselves with a little money and almost no belongings. They immediately fled, taking taxis and hitching rides, reaching the Kurdish-controlled town of Duhok, 50 miles north of Mosul, and then ending up at the large Dawudiya Refugee Camp, set in a remote mountainous region another 35 miles away.
For the past two years, Haney and her son have lived there, in one of many small two-room caravans, no more than 60 square feet. They remain dependent on humanitarian aid.
Ever since ISIS ransacked and perpetrated countless atrocities, not only in Mosul but in many Christian towns in northern Iraq, thousands of other Iraqi Christians have been living in similar conditions, and their hopes of returning are faltering.
“It’s very bad in the camps right now because people are afraid about the future,” said Father Roni Salim Momika, a newly ordained Syriac-Catholic priest from the Christian city of Qaraqosh, which fell to ISIS in August 2014. “The government isn’t doing anything for the Christian people and the refugees, who have no good news. ... We don’t know if we’ll stay in Iraq or go abroad; we have no solution.”
Around 125,000 Christians were forcibly displaced when ISIS launched its northern Iraq offensive, first in predominantly Christian Mosul in June 2014 and then two months later in surrounding towns in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region. More than 100,000 Assyrian Christians (Syriac Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, and Chaldean Catholics) were forced to leave their houses and towns that night with less than an hour’s notice. The region also has a large number of Yazidis made homeless by the Islamic State, along with many Shia Muslims who arguably faced the most brutal persecution.
Since that time, around 25,000 Christians have gone on to leave Iraq for Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Others have also sought refuge in Europe, North America and Australia. Wealthier Christians have tended to emigrate, while poorer ones have remained. But many have also chosen to stay because of love for their country and the hope that the future in Kurdistan and the Nineveh Plain will eventually improve.

Strength Through Faith
During a visit to multiple refugee camps last week with a delegation from the Italian office of Aid to the Church in Need, we came across families who, despite losing all their belongings and livelihoods, still hoped to return to their towns and villages.
Every one of them had very visibly held on to their faith, the Lord being their chief source of strength through the trauma and suffering. Each caravan or house of a displaced family had a large cross, often illuminated, outside of their home, and articles of devotion — however small and modest — were given pride of place inside. And despite it all, their spirits remained high.
Napoleon, his wife, Sana, and their son, Michel, were forced to leave their village near Mosul right after Mass with nothing but their documents. Like many others, they slept on the road the first night, and they recalled that even those who tried to smuggle out some belongings were stripped at ISIS checkpoints and had their possessions removed. But they were one of the lucky families, ending up in a reasonably sized house near the village of Mangesh, close to Duhok.
Sana, whose brother is a Chaldean bishop in Canada, told us that they feel abandoned by Christians abroad. “We feel the West has forgotten us,” she said.
The Church can only do so much, but Europe and the West “can do great things,” interjected Father Ioshia Sana, Mangesh’s Chaldean parish priest, who accompanied us. Governments, he said, “can’t just offer aid; they need to find a solution for these poor people, to defend their rights.”
And yet Sana and her family, despite the real possibility of being able to immigrate to Canada, showed the resilience of many Christian families to remain in their homeland. They have faith and hope in the future, as well as charity for their fellow Muslims, some of whom surprised and angered their Christian neighbors by siding with ISIS when they invaded.

Uncertainty About the Future
Many Christian families, however, feel pessimistic about returning to their villages, even though some have already been liberated, and Mosul and other Assyrian towns are expected to be retaken by Iraq’s military backed up by U.S. and allied forces in the coming weeks.
Father Benedict Kiely, founder of Nazarean.org, which helps Aid to the Church in Need to assist persecuted Christians, visited the region in early September. He noted that, when he visited in May last year, all of the displaced wanted to return to their homes, but when he revisited Iraq in January of this year, “many more said they wanted to leave” the country. During his most recent trip to the region, he said, everyone he spoke to wanted to leave Iraq.
“What struck me since my last visit is the seeming loss of trust among the people, a growing discomfort and uncertainty about the future,” said Bishop Francesco Cavina of Carpi, Italy, who was part of our delegation and visited the region in April. “Many Christians are looking to leave Iraq, and this is a sign that these people don’t think they can have a dignified future for their lives.”
A key concern for many, if not most, Christians is that they feel they cannot trust their Muslim neighbors in their hometowns, or their Muslim rulers, some of whom were Shiite Muslims and yet offered no resistance or help when the Sunni Muslim ISIS fighters invaded (ISIS regards Shiite Muslims, who comprise the majority in Iraq, as heretics deserving of attacks). The Christians feel they were betrayed, and even in some of the camps where they are now living, they feel discriminated against by Iraqi Muslims (for example some Muslim taxi drivers in Erbil, Kurdistan’s capital, won’t take passengers to the suburb of Ankawa, where a large Christian camp is located).
Others don’t want to return if their churches have been destroyed or desecrated, as in one case, where an 800-year-old church in Mosul had been used as an ISIS torture chamber. Still others are also concerned about the imminent liberation of Mosul from ISIS by Iraqi government troops, fearing this will precipitate a million refugees pouring out of the city — many of whom will, like ISIS, be Sunni Muslims and possibly indoctrinated with their Islamist mentality. They worry such refugees will then fill up what were once Christian towns and villages. A further anxiety is that they are uncertain about who will govern them in the future: the government of Kurdistan or of Iraq.
But even those who wish to leave Iraq have no guarantee of a brighter future. “People want to travel abroad, but where?” asked Father Momika. “In Jordan, there is no work, no medical care, no centers where they are welcomed. In Lebanon, they don’t do anything for the people.”

A More Positive View
Yet the hierarchy, particularly Chaldean leaders, are generally taking a more positive view of life in Iraq and are trying to persuade the region’s Christians to stay. “The situation is OK; the government helps them by paying rent for some of their housing,” Chaldean Bishop Rabban Al-Qas of Amadiyah and Zaku told the Register. “In general, it’s quiet … and the majority of them want to go back to their homes.”
The Chaldean hierarchy also believe the liberation of Mosul will offer hope, prevent emigration and could pave the way for their return. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Baghdad has said that the return of faithful to Nineveh is crucial if the Church in Iraq is to survive long term. It’s important to note, however, that Syriac Catholics form by far the largest number Christian refugees in Kurdistan.  
Neville Kyrke-Smith, national director of Aid to the Church in Need U.K., said after a visit to Erbil in September that he “sensed much more hope among Church leaders and faithful” compared to a visit he made last year. In light of Mosul’s expected liberation, he said, “It is clear that the Church is making a strong case to reclaim its place in a region where — until 2014 — there had been an unbroken Christian presence stretching back almost to the start of Christianity.”
A key underlying factor for the well-being of Christians is naturally security and the need for guaranteed safety that depends on a united Iraqi army and the Peshmerga — the Kurdish military. Zaiya, a determined Christian Pashmerga captain in a Christian village in Duhok province, about 60 miles from ISIS-occupied territory, said he believes that what the U.S. government does is crucial for their future — a view that was fairly widespread.
“The American will is decisive if ISIS is to be destroyed,” he told us. “The war against ISIS is almost won, but our future depends on the United States.”
He said the situation is now much calmer, that the Peshmerga are stronger than ISIS (though many Christians resent the fact that the Peshmerga failed to adequately defend them in 2014), and he was “very content” with how things were going. “If the region is governed well, it’s paradise,” he said, adding that the problem now is that no one is controlling ISIS; and once Mosul is liberated, “no one knows where they will end up.”
Zaiya said many of ISIS’ foreign fighters have largely fled Mosul to Syria and Libya, but 3,000 to 5,000 ISIS members remain in the city. Asked if he was concerned another Islamist group will simply take over from ISIS once they’ve gone (al-Qaida and other Islamist groups preceded ISIS in northern Iraq), he said a similar group like Boko Haram, currently operating in Nigeria, could replace them. But he added: “As Pashmerga, we don’t fear anyone or anything. Our motto is that we fight to the death, and if they were to try to take over, in three years, we’d beat them, too.”

The Problem of Islam
In our discussions with local leaders in Mangesh, it became clear that many Christians see Islam as key to the problem. One prominent figure said that “what ISIS is doing is the real Islam” because it is “how Islam started: through killing, violence, beheading. They have always spread religion through violence.” The other local leaders nodded in agreement.
They also warned that if European countries accept many Muslims into their countries, “it will become a big problem for them, too.” One of the local leaders said, “It seems to be a humanitarian cause, but it’s not; it will lead to war, bloodshed and violence. They’ll take your country by war. They don’t know the language of dialogue, only war.”
Many Iraqi Christians are pro-Donald Trump largely because of his attitude toward Islam. “They think he’ll do something for them, and they despise [President Barack] Obama,” said Father Kiely. And Christians tend to blame the United States for the current chaos and destruction. The U.S., they say, has a grave responsibility to set things right.
Still, in spite of the chaos, did they feel life in Iraq had in any way improved since the removal of Saddam Hussein? The civic leaders in Mangesh said that in some minor ways it had, but, now, “instead of one Saddam, we now have 500 Saddams.” Many local governments are now run by mini dictators, they say, and yet there was generally peace for Christians under former Iraqi tyrant, who largely left them alone.
“In Muslim-majority countries, without a dictator, you can’t do anything,” said Father Sana. “The hope was that things would get better [without Saddam]; but, in actual fact, things have gotten worse.”

The Economic Situation
On the face of it, the economy seems to be surprisingly healthy — especially in the Kurdistan capital, Erbil, once called Iraq’s Dubai. Many businesses seem to be prospering, skyscrapers have gone up, the shops are full of goods, and every other car seems to be an SUV. Inflation in Iraq has been almost zero, and last month it dipped to -0.4%.
But locals say economic prosperity is largely an illusion, that people have to work several jobs to make ends meet, and soldiers and police often don’t get paid on time.
“Salaries have halved,” said Father Jalal, our guide. “Even the Peshmerga have to do two jobs: A lot of them are taxi drivers, where they work as a kind of secret service and keep their Kalashnikov [guns] in the back of their car.”
The future for Iraq’s Christians is, therefore, precarious at best. For Aid to the Church in Need, which has donated more than $20 million to projects in Iraq since the ISIS offensive in 2014, the entire region is a work in progress, and there is no quick fix.
Alessandro Monteduro, director of ACN Italy, told the Register that it’s a “tragedy in motion,” and it is “not sufficient to donate to finance just one project because, after that, the emergency still remains.”
Through the generosity of its benefactors, he said ACN has been helping Iraqi Christians in a variety of ways: for instance, providing resources so that 7,000 pupils can attend school and, just during our visit, bringing 11,500 packages of food. It has funded the building of a private co-educational school in Ankawa run by Dominican sisters, attended by 620 internally displaced Christian children living in camps.

Appeal for Support
Much good work is continuing, but perhaps one of the greatest grievances among the Christians in Iraq is the feeling that they have been abandoned and ignored, not only by Western governments but also by their Christian brothers and sisters in the West.
“We haven’t seen anyone visit from any government abroad, only the French government,” said Father Momika. “Sometimes I ask: Where is the global Christian community? Where are they? Are they sleeping? I don’t know. And the Vatican, where are they? Okay, I support them in what they say and their prayers. … Yes, we want prayer, but we also want people to do something for us, to change the situation, to change the Christian situation here. Because, you know, before this crisis, if you had come to live in the Nineveh Plain, in Qaraqosh, you would think you were living in paradise because people were living in peace.”
Father Momika predicted that many Christians will stay, but also “a large number will go.” He said five to 10 families are “leaving Iraq every day” and highlighted the fact that, since the Iraq War of 2003, the number of Christians living in Iraq has collapsed from 1.3 million to 250,000, just as Pope St. John Paul II prophetically warned it would, which is partly why he so vociferously opposed the U.S.-led invasion.
“To stop [the violence], we cannot do anything because we don’t have anything in our hands,” Father Momika said. “I tell you, if America does something, they will stay, but even then we’ll have problems, because already a large number of Christians have left.”

Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.
He visited the Kurdistan region Sept. 20-23.
See more photos of Edward Pentin's visit with the delegation here.

Iraq’s beleaguered Christians face ‘sneaky enemy in the ground’

By Crux

Even if the Islamic State is vanquished in Iraq and Syria, many other things will be required in order for Christians and other minorities to be able to go back. They’ll need support for rebuilding homes, they’ll need jobs so their children perceive a future, and, of course, they’ll need stability so they don’t feel they’re taking their lives in their hands every time they walk down the street.
None of that, however, will matter until what Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako has called the “sneaky hidden enemy in the ground” is cleared away - the proliferation of landmines, which presently make a safe return all but impossible even in areas where IS has been dislodged.
Since the end of May, Peshmerga forces have succeeded in freeing several villages in the Nineveh Plain, theoretically making it possible for people driven out of those villages to go back. A French NGO called Fraternité en Irak (“Brotherhood in Iraq”) recently travelled to those villages with the idea of helping with reconstruction, only to discover that every village and its surrounding land have been mined and booby-trapped.
Already in 2014, a young 14-year-old Christian boy had died while helping his father plow a field in an area that had been briefly occupied by IS. Scores more have perished after May in a near-desperate attempt to get home.
Since May, the Fraternité has been working with the U.N. to develop a mine clearance program. Earlier this week, it announced that two Christian villages and four villages of the Kakai minority, located nearby, will be demined by a specialized NGO funded by the Fraternité and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
(The Kakai are recognized as a distinct ethnic and religious minority in Iraq, though their actual belief system is unclear as there’s a strong emphasis on secrecy about their teachings, which are revealed only to initiates.)
In a recent article published by the Fraternité, one member of the Kakai said eleven people have been killed in his village alone by landmines in efforts to return - in some cases, the fatalities struck villagers who had turned themselves into amateur mine-clearers, with disastrous results.
It’s indicative of the climate that the new NGO doesn’t wish to reveal the precise location of the demining effort, or, for that matter, even its own name. Obviously, the fear is making them and the newly demined villages targets.
Galvanized by the brutal attack on Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad in October 2010, when six jihadists opened fire and eventually left 58 people dead, including a priest shot dead at the altar, a group of young French students created the Fraternité en Irak as a way of responding.
Its aim is to assist minorities in Iraq, both with immediate humanitarian needs and also long-term development projects that will allow them to remain in the region.
They forged ties with Sako, who’s alerted to the threat posed by the mines that cluster many traditionally Christian areas, as well as zones inhabited by other minority groups.
“Once the fighting is over, a great humanitarian project will have to be undertaken,” Sako said in an appeal issued in May, as a battle for the Nineveh Plain was heating up. “For over two years, hundreds of thousands of people from the Nineveh plain - about 120,000 Christians, tens of thousands of Yezidis, kaka’is and all other inhabitants of the region - have been hoping to return to their homes.”
“Yet before thinking about reconstruction, before returning to revive our beloved cities in the plain of Nineveh - Teleskuf, Bqaofq, Batnaya, Tell Keff, Bartala, Ba’ashiqa, Karamless and Qaraqosh -, a big obstacle will have to be removed,” Sako said.
“This obstacle is a sneaky hidden enemy, under the ground and sometimes even in everyday objects. I mean mines and many Islamic State booby traps left when they are forced to leave an area. Wherever it pulls out, it sows death by leaving hidden mines and explosive devices.”
“If I wish to draw the world’s attention to the tragedy, it is because I do not want our children to grow up amid minefields,” Sako said. “Our people has suffered too much for there to be more people injured, amputees, death by mines.”
“Rebuilding schools or clinics brings greater rewards, but if mine clearance is not done before, we can rebuild nothing,” the patriarch said, who also serves as president of the Iraqi bishops’ conference.
“I invite all those who read these words to believe in Christ, our Savior, and in the resurgence of Mosul and the Nineveh Plain one day. Working step by step, stage by stage, rebuilding after clearing, we Iraqi Christians can return to live here.”
The perils of digging up all those “sneaky enemies in the ground” offer a reminder of the staggering challenges facing the Christians and other minorities of Iraq and Syria, even in a post-IS future. The Fraternité en Irak, however, is also a reminder that when good people get serious, those challenges are not insurmountable.

Information about the mine-clearing program in Nineveh can be found here.