Critical deportation hearing sparks protest in Downtown Detroit

By Click on Detroit
Pryia Mann and Reporter Derick Hutchinson

Hope has turned into desperation for families of Iraqi immigrants detained by ICE. Now, they're demanding answers ahead of a critical court hearing.

Family members have gone months without communicating with their loved ones facing deportation, and that silence has many residents restless.

Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union said the Iraqi government will only take back citizens who volunteer to be deported and that detainees are being threatened by ICE agents if they don't sign.

ACLU members told a federal judge that signing the documents is "the equivalent of signing their own death warrant."

Protestors stood outside federal court Monday claiming Iraqi nationals were threatened by ICE agents into signing the voluntary deportations documents.

"Basically saying if you don't agree to self deport, you'll spend your lives in prison separated from your family," said Nadine Yousif Kalasho, of Code Legal Aid. "They're being coerced into signing documents that will eventually lead to their deportations."

ACLU members and Code Legal Aid said Chaldean and Muslim Iraqis could be killed if they are deported to Iraq.

"A lot of them have cracked," Kalasho said. "They're helpless and starting to believe these people who are not telling the truth."

In court, an attorney for the Department of Justice disputed the claims, saying coercion might have happened during consulate interviews with Iraqi officials where ICE agents were not present.

"We're just here to plead and say, 'Let them be free,'" Rita Daniel said.

Daniel's brother, Steve Shakkuri, said the family is praying he will be released. The 39-year-old Chaldean man, from Sterling Heights, was detained in January during a routine check-in with ICE agents.

Shakkuri was brought to the United States legally as a child and convicted of felony retail fraud as a teenager. His family said he spent the next 20 years turning his life around, and recently got married and had a baby boy.

"It's been rough to have someone just taken away, separated from family," Daniel said. "He missed Father's Day with his son. It's really hard."

After hearing arguments, Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered both sides to negotiate privately so that lawyers have time to meet with detainees before they talk to Iraqi officials. The next round is scheduled for the end of June. 

13 giugno 2017
Baghdadhope

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15 giugno 2017
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Mons. Basel Yaldo sui caldei arrestati negli USA: "I governi non ci ascolterebbero"

June 16, 2017
Click on Detroit
Michigan lawmakers pen letter on deportation of dozens of Chaldean-American immigrants
 
23 giugno 2017
Fides
Il Patriarca caldeo: “tristezza e preoccupazione” per la vicenda dei cristiani iracheni che il governo USA vuole espellere 

6 luglio 2017
Asia News
Detroit: più di 100 migranti irakeni cristiani a rischio di rimpatrio 

July 10, 2017
Fox2
Chaldeans in metro Detroit fear new round of ICE arrests

12 luglio 2017
Fides
Bloccata per altre due settimane l'espulsione degli immigrati caldei. Ma si teme un altro giro di vite  

25 luglio 2017
Fides
Giudice di Detroit blocca per 90 giorni la deportazione annunciata di immigrati iracheni

July 26, 2017
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Some Chaldean detainees could receive pardons from Gov Snyder  

April 27, 2018
Pacific Standard
Detained Iraqi Immigrants Are Fighting Ice for Their Day in Court 

Cristiani perseguitati: Acs, la Banda dei Carabinieri in concerto il 26 giugno a Roma. Testimonianze da Iraq e Pakistan

By AgenSIR

Martedì 26 giugno alle ore 20.30, presso la piazza d’armi della Legione Allievi Carabinieri in Viale Giulio Cesare, a Roma, per la prima volta la Banda dell’Arma dei Carabinieri, composta da 90 elementi, si esibirà in favore degli oltre 200 milioni di cristiani che in tutto il mondo soffrono persecuzione a causa della loro fede. Organizzato dal Comando delle Scuole dell’Arma dei Carabinieri in collaborazione con Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre (Acs) il concerto sarà accompagnato dal Coro degli Allievi Carabinieri del 137º Corso, e intervallato dalle testimonianze dei due cardinali designati Joseph Coutts, arcivescovo di Karachi in Pakistan, e da Louis Raphael I Sako, patriarca di Babilonia dei caldei. Nel corso dell’evento interverranno anche il generale Luigi Longobardi, mons. Santo Marcianò, arcivescovo Ordinario militare per l’Italia, il card. Mauro Piacenza, Presidente internazionale di Acs. “Un incontro-riflessione su uno dei temi più scottanti che riguardano i diritti fondamentali dell’uomo: squarciare il velo dell’indifferenza e porre in essere azioni concrete contro la persecuzione dei cristiani nel mondo e la conseguente negazione della libertà religiosa”, commenta il generale Longobardi, Comandante delle Scuole dell’Arma dei Carabinieri. “I Carabinieri – aggiunge – da sempre impegnati a difendere e a garantire i diritti dei più deboli e indifesi, sia in Patria che in missioni di Pace all’estero, desiderano con questa serata attirare l’attenzione verso questa complessa situazione, affinché si possano attuare misure che evitino la discriminazione, perché ogni uomo e ogni donna ha diritto di professare in libertà la propria fede. Tutti devono poter manifestare la propria religione. Non è un fatto privato. Non si può rinunciare alla denuncia e neppure all’azione. Il mondo istituzionale e politico ha il dovere di rispondere – come più volte è stato già fatto -, con forza e decisione alle persecuzioni contro i cristiani e contro qualsiasi altro culto”.

To save Christianity on the Nineveh Plains, it’ll take security and jobs

By Crux
John L. Allen Jr.

Though Catholicism is always full of drama, which is what makes it so utterly fascinating, some things are more dramatic than others. While 2018 is only halfway over, my early nominee for the most compelling Catholic storyline of the year comes from Iraq and the Nineveh Plains Reconstruction Project.

Inés San Martín and I just returned from a week on the Nineveh Plains and we saw the miracles unfolding there, in one of the world’s toughest environments to be a Christian.

For centuries the Nineveh Plains were considered a Christian stronghold in the Middle East, anchored by a series of traditionally Christian villages. In fact, when ISIS first arose, many experts toyed with the idea of encouraging Christians from elsewhere to move there as a “safe haven.”

Yet when ISIS arrived in 2014, things changed overnight, as more than 100,000 Christians were forced to flee and their villages were gutted, with churches, monasteries, businesses and private homes torched, torn down, or badly defaced.

Today, however, those towns are rising from the ruins, and many Christians, though not all, are coming back. Places with names such as Qaraqosh, Teleskof, Karamless, Alqosh, and others, are once again thriving Christian communities, with big plans for the future.

All this is thanks to the Nineveh Plains Reconstruction Project, organized and led by the local churches, and backed by donors such as the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need and the Knights of Columbus.

(The Knights are a principal partner of Crux.)

The determination, courage and vision of these Christians is awesome to witness, and it provides one with fresh hope that perhaps Christianity isn’t destined for extinction in the land of its birth after all.

Yet speaking with these Christians, especially members of the younger generation, it becomes clear that rebuilding their homes, however essential, doesn’t mean it’s “job over” in terms of persuading them to remain. It’s more akin to a point of departure, not a destination.

Over and over, what San Martín and I heard are that two things are required if idealistic and deeply faithful young Christians are going to stay here and try to make a go of it: Security and jobs.

Twenty-year-old Rashel Groo, a Chaldean Catholic from Qaraqosh and a computer science student at Ankawa’s new Catholic University, is a typical example. She’s smart, motivated, with good English and a bright future, exactly the sort of person who could help anchor the future here - and right now, she’s planning to get out.

“If I could find a good job here to build a life, maybe,” she said. “But why should I stay here without that?”

‘Mogul for the Martyrs’ wields business moxie to save Iraqi Christians

By Crux
John L. Allen Jr.

Few Western bishops these days are building either new universities or hospitals, mostly because they don’t have either the money or people to justify it. In the case of hospitals, any movement is usually in the opposite direction by selling them off.

If a Western bishop were to put up a university or hospital, however, it would at least be a fairly recognized and accepted thing for him to do. Imagine the reaction, however, if a bishop proudly announced that, in addition to all that, he was also putting up a boutique 30-bed hotel and a strip mall, both of which will turn a tidy profit for the church.

The howls of “scam” and “scandal” would probably be loud enough to deafen entire neighborhoods. After all, while there are plenty of exalted titles that come with being a Catholic bishop, “mogul” isn’t usually on the list.

Yet in the Archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq, that’s exactly what the deeply entrepreneurial Archbishop Bashar Warda is doing, and here he’s hailed as a visionary - because everyone knows that in the context of today’s Iraq, what he’s doing isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme but more akin to a survival strategy.

He is, in effect, a “mogul for the martyrs,” determined to ensure that a suffering church won’t just survive here but actually thrive.

“My community needs a lot of jobs,” Warda explained on Thursday as he showed me around the construction site of his new hotel, slated to open in September.

“Most Christians who have left Iraq have done so because of wars, sanctions, persecutions, and sectarian violence, and I can’t control any of that,” he said. “But if they have a good job, at least they’ll think twice before leaving.”

Warda’s fear of an exodus isn’t idle. From a Christian population of 1.5 million before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, today the total number of Christians left in the country is perhaps 300,000, and some believe it’s lower than that.

Why should I stay here?

While the reasons for that out-migration are many, most boil down to what I was told by 20-year-old Rashel Groo, a computer science student at Ankawa’s new Catholic University.

“If I could find a good job here to build a life, maybe,” she said. “But why should I stay here without that?”

Groo also cited another factor: “There are more opportunities for women abroad,” she said. “Here the culture is more close-minded.”

Groo, in a sense, is the uphill climb Warda faces: She represents the best and brightest of the next generation of Chaldean Catholics here, a talented and ambitious young person who simply doesn’t believe she’ll be given full range for those gifts unless she goes abroad.

(The good news for the archbishop, however, is that three of Groo’s friends say their preference is to stay, though none is truly sure that’s going to be possible.)

In his relentless efforts to stem the tide, Warda’s gambling not just on spiritual care but economic development - trying to prime the local economic pump by giving Christians opportunities to find jobs and run businesses, thus giving them a sense that a decent life here isn’t just a pipe dream.

Seeking the next opportunity

Transformation of Iraqi village a warning about anti-Christian tides

By Crux
Inés San Martín

Heroic efforts are underway to guarantee the continued presence of Christianity in Iraq, particularly on the northern Nineveh Plains, a land dotted with monasteries built in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries.

Not far from the Plains, located on both sides of the border dividing Iraq from Kurdish-held territories, stands the city of Shaqlawa. It serves as a reminder of what awaits if the waves of anti-Christian hostility that often crest here, some covert and some brutally in-your-face, don’t recede soon.

Once a city where Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in peace, Shaqlawa, located some 20 miles from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, today has 10,000 Muslim families and fewer than 200 Christian ones.

There are no Jewish families left, and Christians continue to move out at a pace of 10 families a year, as they’re no longer able to resist bans on opening stores and owning businesses.

Among the Christian families left is that of Father Samir Sheer, a Chaldean Catholic priest who was ordained five years ago and who currently lives in Ankawa, the Christian quarter of Erbil.

“We have many Muslims in Shaqlawa who have the same ideas of [Islamic terrorist group] ISIS,” Sheer told Crux on Thursday. “They hate us. Not all of them, because I have many Muslim friends, but the big majority doesn’t like us.”

In addition, he’s convinced - due, he says, to personal experience - that if an Imam points his finger at a Christian, calls him an “infidel” and asks his followers to kill him, “they will [do it], no questions asked.”

In 1997, a friend of Sheer, Havel Lazar, and his father, Lazar Mati, were killed by a mob of 200 angry Muslim Kurds. They were taunted, tortured and butchered, and their bodies were cut into pieces and thrown in the garden of a Christian family.

Allegedly, the Muslim Kurds killed them because the sister of Sheer’s friend wanted to marry a Muslim man, though the priest suspects the fact that Lazar Mati had gotten a position at the local government office also contributed.

Their crimes were never investigated, and today they’re honored on the grounds of a parish that belongs to the only Catholic church in town. The violence against this father and son, Sheer said, began after an Imam accused them of being infidels and called for their murder.

Masoud Barzani, at the time leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and eventually the president of the Kurdistan Region for over 12 years, went to Shaqlawa at the time and promised to stop the growing violence against Christians, who were victims of burglaries and arson, yet nothing was done.

According to Sheer, Muslims would come into a house of a Christian family and claim it as their own, forcing them to leave.

Emmanuel Macron a rencontré l’archevêque de Mossoul

By La Vie segnalato da Il Sismografo blogspot
Pascale Tournier

La rencontre n’était pas inscrite à l’agenda officiel. Elle a même été organisée à la dernière minute. Vendredi 15 juin, vers 9h, Emmanuel Macron a rencontré l’archevêque de Mossoul et de Qaraqosh, Yohanna Petros Mouche, dans son bureau.

« C’était une rencontre intime, pas du tout formelle », a confié à La Vie l’évêque syriaque, à l’issue de ce rendez-vous. Cet entretien n’est pas dû au hasard : il s’inscrit dans la préparation de la rencontre entre le Président et le pape François au Vatican, le 26 juin prochain. Car parmi les dossiers que le chef de l’État compte aborder avec le souverain pontife, celui du destin des chrétiens d’Orient trône au-dessus de la pile. Même si, depuis le printemps 2017 et la défaite de Daech dans la région, la population a pu peu à peu rentrer dans les villages, la situation dans la zone n’est pas encore totalement stabilisée.

Durant les vingt minutes d’entretien, Mgr Petros Mouche a d’abord rappelé au locataire de l’Élysée les liens historiques qui unissent la France et les chrétiens d’Orient, puis a remercié tous les Français qui ont contribué, au sein de la coalition internationale, à la libération de la plaine de Ninive et de Mossoul. Le Président s’est montré très à l’écoute. Il a même pris son temps. Le directeur de cabinet de Matignon et le chef d’État major, qui devaient ensuite voir Emmanuel Macron, ont dû patienter dans l’antichambre.

À la fin de la rencontre, l’évêque irakien a invité le président français à venir en Irak pour admirer le monastère de Mar Behnam. Un lieu chargé de symboles et d’histoire pour les différentes communautés de la région. Situé dans un village sunnite, le mausolée – détruit par l’État islamique en mars 2015 puis rénové – abrite les reliques de saint Behnam, l’un des martyrs les plus importants de la chrétienté orientale. Musulmans et yézidis viennent aussi y prier.
En cadeau, l'archevêque de Mossoul a offert à Emmanuel Macron une page tirée d’un livret de messe retrouvé dans les ruines d'une église de la ville de Sinjar et que les islamistes n’avaient pas brûlée. Visiblement touché, Emmanuel Macron lui a demandé de lui lire ce qui y était écrit en arabe. Il s’agissait de la prière du Notre Père. Puis il a enbrassé Mgr Petros Mouche.

Congregazione Chiese Orientali: da domani la 91ª assemblea plenaria della Roaco

By AgenSIR

La situazione ecclesiale della Terra Santa, delle Chiese in Medio Oriente e la diaspora in Europa a causa dell’immigrazione e la conseguente cura dei fedeli orientali nei Paesi europei: sono questi i principali temi in agenda della 91ma assemblea plenaria della Roaco (Riunione Opere Aiuto Chiese Orientali) che si svolgerà da martedì 19 a venerdì 22 giugno, presso l’Aula della Congregazione Generale della Casa Generalizia della Compagnia di Gesù, a Roma.
Durante l’assemblea verrà commemorato il 50° anniversario della Roaco, presieduta dal card. Leonardo Sandri, prefetto della Congregazione per le Chiese Orientali. Il programma prevede nella sessione del 20 giugno, dopo una messa celebrata dal prefetto nella chiesa di Santo Spirito in Sassia, alcune considerazioni sulla situazione delle Chiese in Medio Oriente, con particolare attenzione alla Turchia, Siria, Iraq e Terra Santa, con la partecipazione dei Rappresentanti Pontifici della Siria, il card. Mario Zenari; della Turchia, mons. Paul Russell; dell’Iraq e Giordania, mons. Alberto Ortega; nonché di mons. Segundo Tejado Muñoz, sotto-segretario del Dicastero per la promozione dello sviluppo umano integrale e del Vicario Apostolico di Anatolia mons. Paolo Bizzeti. Nella stessa giornata è previsto l’intervento di mons. Richard Gallagher, segretario per i Rapporti con gli Stati. Sarà anche oggetto di attenzione la situazione ecclesiale della Terra Santa, verificando nel contempo gli aiuti grazie ai proventi della Colletta del Venerdì Santo. Parteciperanno il delegato apostolico a Gerusalemme, mons. Leopoldo Girelli ; il custode di Terra Santa, padre Francesco Patton, e il Vice Cancelliere della Bethlehem University, fr. Peter Bray. Il giorno 21 sarà interamente dedicato alla riflessione sul tema “Diaspora in Europa a causa dell’immigrazione e le sfide per la cura pastorale dei fedeli orientali in Europa”. Interverranno mons. Dominicus Meier, ausiliare dell’arcidiocesi di Paderborn e coordinatore per la cura pastorale dei fedeli orientali in Germania; mons. Stephen Chirappanath, visitatore apostolico per i fedeli siro-malabaresi in Europa; mons. Josyf Milan, coordinatore dei fedeli ucraini in diaspora; mons. Saad Sirop, visitatore apostolico dei fedeli caldei in Europa; mons. Yuriy Kolasa, vicario generale dell’Ordinariato bizantino in Austria, e Abba Petros Berga, coordinatore dei fedeli etiopi in Europa centrale. Il giorno 21 parlerà Jan Tombiński, ambasciatore dell’Unione Europea presso la Santa Sede e mons. Silvano Maria Tomasi, membro del Dicastero per la promozione dello sviluppo umano integrale sulla tematica dell’immigrazione. Venerdì 22 giugno i partecipanti all’assemblea saranno ricevuti in udienza da Papa Francesco. Durante i lavori verrà presentata una brochure commemorativa del 50° della fondazione della Roaco.

World’s First Shrine Dedicated to Persecuted Christians Inaugurated in New York City

By National Catholic Register
Angelo Stagnaro

The city that touts the greatest ethnic diversity of any single spot on the globe celebrated the Catholic Church’s first shrine dedicated to persecuted Christians around the world at St. Michael’s Church in Midtown Manhattan Tuesday.

The city, which was attacked by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001, now stands as a “Beacon of Christ’s Peace” ― a place described by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan as “a gathering place of quiet reflection for those who cherish the gift of religious freedom.”

Christ warned his followers repeatedly in the Gospels that they would assuredly experience persecution because of their love for him. St. Paul’s letters are replete with such warnings, as well.

“This is a conflict that has been going on for centuries and will not end until the final victory of Christ,” explained Father Benedict Kiely, founder of the Our Lady of Aradin Shrine.

The newly inaugurated shrine at St. Michael’s parish enshrines the Our Lady of Aradin, “Mother of the Persecuted Church” icon, which depicts the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus as Iraqis dressed in traditional wedding attire. Cardinal Dolan called the icon “timely and relevant” in a formal letter of blessing and congratulations. Cardinal Dolan was not in attendance for the inaugural June 12 Mass, but sent representatives along with his letter.

Though the two are depicted as Iraqis in the icon, the shrine is meant to be a place of prayer for the entire persecuted Church, including those who live in relative freedom in Christian-dominate countries.

Aradin means “Eden” in Aramaic, the name of the village where the icon was commissioned. Aramaic is the language Jesus spoke and is still spoken in parts of Iraq and Syria, both colloquially and in the Church liturgy.

Around the icon’s border are the words of the Ave Maria prayer written in Aramaic.

Mouthana Butres, the artist who wrote the enshrined icon, was driven from his home in the Christian town of Qaraqosh on the Nineveh Plain by the Islamic State and is now a refugee in Lebanon.

In his letter to Father Kiely, Cardinal Dolan wrote, “How timely, and how relevant, that we welcome our Mother to the heart of New York.”

“Throughout the world, but especially in the Middle East, Christian brothers and sisters are facing persecution, ethnic cleansing, martyrdom and genocide,” explained Father Kiely.

Christians are the most persecuted group in the contemporary world. In a recent letter to the United Nations, the Holy See reported that more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed every year because of their faith.

Every year, the Christian nonprofit organization Open Doors publishes the “World Watch List,” which lists the worst 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian. The 2018 “World Watch List” includes the following countries as its “top 10”: North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.

The International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need reports that the religiously motivated ethnic cleansing of Christians is so severe that they are set to disappear completely from parts of the Middle East within a decade. The need to give aid is dire, as Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, has told the Register.

“The attacks on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, marked by so much suffering and pain, but also by so many acts of bravery and courage, alerted the world to the growing reality of radical Islamic terrorism,” Father Kiely said in an interview with the Register. “Now, in 2018, attacks on Christians are happening on a daily basis somewhere in the world. There is not a single news or commentary show in today’s media landscape that regularly covers the daily vicious attacks on men, women and children solely because they are followers of Jesus Christ.”

Father Kiely, a man of calm but prayerful and focused demeanor, told the Register, “In the summer of 2014, ISIL/ISIS and other Islamic jihadists swept across the Nineveh Plain of Iraq, home to Christians since the time of the apostles. The Islamists, including ISIL/ISIS and other groups, also overran much of Syria, bombing Damascus, where St. Paul was baptized. In Egypt, Christians have been slaughtered in churches, in villages and in their homes. In Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia — even in Europe — Christians are being persecuted to the point of death for their faith. Yet this is not newsworthy.”

Father Kiely visited Iraq for the first time in 2015, not long after the Christian genocide began there. “I was struck by the tremendous faith of the people who had left with absolutely nothing because they refused to convert to Islam. ISIL/ISIS terrorists demanded they ‘convert or die’ ― instead, they chose Christ,” he said.

“I was in the devastated city of Mosul a bit ago, and it was still filled with bodies and unexploded bombs at that point. The Christians there have suffered so much, and they constantly asked for our prayers. Our shrine is a place for both victims of persecution and the relatively free Christians of the West to pray continually for the persecuted Church.”

As Cardinal Dolan remarked, the shrine will be “for all who cherish religious freedom” and “a place to pray for all the displaced Christians of the Middle East and for the whole world.”

When asked as to the appropriateness of a shrine and an icon dedicated to persecuted Christians, Father Kiely become thoughtful and pointed out that the faithful have always given such value and honor.

“Authentic prayer will always inspire some kind of action. Just as we all hold a photo of our loved ones near our hearts to remind us of their love and their closeness, so Christians, from the very beginning, have given special value and honor to images and special places of prayer and devotion,” he said.

Before creating the Our Lady of Aradin Shrine, Father Kiely founded Nasarean.org ― an organization dedicated to helping the persecuted Christians of the Middle East and throughout the world

“We are at a Lepanto moment in Western history,” said Father Kiely. Lepanto refers to the 1571 naval battle that turned the tide for Christian forces, outnumbered 10-to-1 against Muslim invaders of the Ottoman Empire in the waters off southwestern Greece.

This shrine is not without precedent. There are shrines to many martyrs of Islamic and atheistic persecution, including the Shrine of the Martyrs of Otranto, the site of a Muslim invasion of Italy in 1480 in which 813 Christian men and boys were slaughtered when they refused to convert to Islam.

“We must pray with the same fervor that the Christians prayed then to save Western civilization, not just from the danger of radical Islamist extremism, but from radical, aggressive secular liberalism. Prayer for the Persecuted Church is a Christian duty,” said Father Kiely. “The witness of persecuted Christians inspires us to speak the truth in love and to bear witness, even to martyrdom, in our society. In other words, have some guts to live the faith.”

Some Iraqi Christians out of patience to see how things shake out

By Crux
Inés San Martin

If you’re a Christian from one of the villages on the Nineveh Plains destroyed by ISIS which are now accessible and being rebuilt, you have a hard decision to make: you can either go home or move on. There are compelling arguments on either side, often pivoting on a tension between community identity and family safety and opportunity.

If you’re from one of the villages that’s not accessible and show no signs of becoming so anytime soon, in effect the decision has been made for you.

The Nineveh Plains, which overlaps the border between Iraq and Kurdish-held territories, is a conglomerate of small villages, many of them historically Christian: Teleskof, Batnaya, Bartella, Karamles, Qaraqosh, and others.

With the help of private NGOs such as the papal organization Aid to the Church in Need, the Knights of Columbus and the Hungarian government, thousands of Christian families have been able to go home after the region was liberated last October.

Yet a handful of villages hasn’t been so lucky.

Batnaya, which before ISIS was a bustling town with some 800 Christian families, is today entirely empty of Christians, and only 350 of its previous families even remain in the country. Though technically free from ISIS, it’s located in a “no man’s land” of sorts, trapped on the wrong side of a border between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Shiite militias backed by Iran.

An estimated 80 percent of houses in the village were wiped out by ISIS, and pictures show an unimaginable level of destruction. Even if Batnaya is at some point freed, there’s virtually nothing to go back to, raising the question of why any of its former residents would ever want to return.

Sulaya Oraha Eshaz, one of those former residents who today is living in nearby Teleskof, wonders the same thing.

“If we could, we’d leave for the United States not tomorrow but today,” he said, referring to himself and his large family.

Eshaz and his wife Aghata Marogy Eshaz have been married for 46 years and have 12 children, the eldest of whom is 45 and the youngest 25. They also have some “20 or 25 grandchildren,” Eshaz said, though he’s a little vague on the precise number.

Some of his children are now in Germany, Sweden and the United States, while three are living in other Iraqi cities and three are still in the family home.

The children who’ve left for Europe and the U.S., he said, didn’t leave for economic reasons nor escaping Islamic terrorists. All got out before 2014, because they were tired of Iraq’s political instability and “indirect oppression” perpetrated by the governments through schools and universities.

An entrepreneur, teacher and farmer who was a wealthy man in Batnaya, Eshaz insists he and his family would be an asset for a host country.

“I don’t want to go and cause the American government trouble,” Eshaz told Crux on Wednesday. “We are a very productive family, my children are educated, we can add to society.”

When ISIS came, Eshaz said, he lost several properties he owned in Batnaya. He still clings to a laminated legal form issued by an ISIS court, which blatantly states that his properties were stripped and assigned to a Muslim business partner because he was a Christian.

“How do you expect us to live with people who take these verses from the Quran to justify stealing the properties of Christians?” Eshaz said, not hiding his frustration. The verse he referred to was imprinted at the top of the court document, next to the ISIS flag: “I will judge about properties based upon the word of God.”

“According to this verse they could take it all, and they did,” he said.

Even post-ISIS, Eshaz is no more confident in the Iraqi government to deliver long-sought justice for Christians and other minorities. Ask if he fears the government more than he fears a return by ISIS, he said that it’s “50-50.”

“ISIS is temporary while the government is permanent, and the conflict will continue,” he said. “ISIS was gone after three years. The government’s oppression is still here.”

Eshaz claims that unless the government changes its ways, Christianity will no longer be in the region 50 years from now, because the “racism against Christians being taught at schools” will make everything worse a few years from now.

“Yet if the law is based on humanitarian principles and not religion, people will stay,” he added.

Based on his experience, Eshaz voices a deeply-ingrained mistrust of Muslims.

He told the story that when his children arrived in Germany, they were accused by their peers of being “racist” for warning against the welcoming of Muslim immigrants. Yet his children wouldn’t budge: “They’re Muslims, they have Islamic background.” Then ISIS attacked in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, he said, and “they realized that my children weren’t racist.”

In addition, he said, when he was able to go back to Batnaya he found graffiti in German, French and English in the walls of what had been their church saying “Christians leave,” and “all the crosses might fall” - suggesting, he said, that the terrorists who left the warnings actually trained in countries that once didn’t see them as a threat.

Father Araam Rameel Hannan from neighboring Alqosh  is a big supporter of the reconstruction of the Christian villages of the Nineveh Plains. However, he acknowledges that if the situation for Christians “continues as it is, many [more] will want to emigrate.”

“We’ve had problems for the past 100 years, they did not start with ISIS. They were more like ‘game-over,’” he told Crux during a five-minute drive from Alqosh to Teleskof. Batnaya is five minutes further down the same road from Teleskof, but it’s closed by the border and those with a permit to go back to the town need some two hours to get there.

Despite the fact that the area is slowly coming back to life, the situation for many Christians is still precarious at best, and the pressure from the international community will be key in guaranteeing the survival of Christianity in the region where it was born. In the meantime, Christians such as Eshaz aren’t waiting around to see how things shake out.

“No human rights defenders care about Christians in Iraq,” Hannan said. “We need the international community to care for us. The help of Aid to the Church in Need or the Church in Rome is fundamental for our survival and that of the Yazidis. But we not only need financial support: If the Iraqi government knew that the world is paying attention to our future, they too would protect us.”

Patriarca caldeo fa gli auguri ai musulmani per la festa di Eid al Fitr e partecipa a una cena per la fine del Ramadan

By Fides

Nella serata di ieri, giovedì 14 giugno, il Patriarca caldeo Louis Raphael Sako ha preso parte a una cena organizzata presso la chiesa caldea di Mar Korkis, a Baghdad, in occasione della fine del Ramadan, il mese sacro dei musulmani. A condividere l'iftar, il pasto serale con cui i musulmani interrompono il digiuno quotidiano durante il Ramadan, erano presenti cristiani, musulmani, mandei e sabei, insieme a autorità locali e all'Ambasciatore dello Stato di Palestina a Baghdad.
Con la cena della sera di giovedi 14 giugno si è aperta la festa di Eid al Fitr, che segna la fine del Ramadan. Il Patriarca caldeo nelle ultime ore ha anche indirizzato “a nome della Chiesa” un messaggio di felicitazioni “alle sorelle e ai fratelli musulmani”, in occasione della ricorrenza. In tale messaggio, diffuso dai media ufficiali del Patriarcato e pervenuto all'Agenzia Fides, il Primate della Chiesa caldea – che sarà creato Cardinale da Papa Francesco il prossimo 28 giugno – fa anche appello ai vincitori delle elezioni parlamentari svoltesi lo scorso 12 maggio, chiedendo loro di “essere pronti a sacrificarsi per l'amore dell'Iraq e della popolazione irachena”, e di farsi carico delle proprie responsabilità “per salvare il nostro Paese dall'attuale pericolosa crisi politica e sociale”. Il Patriarca chiede di superare lo stallo post-elettorale e risolvere le controversie sorte a partire da accuse e sospetti di brogli elettorali, che rischiano di paralizzare la vita istituzionale e politica del Paese. “I cristiani” ha assicurato il Patriarca caldeo “stanno pregando in tutte le chiese affinché ci sia presto un governo solido, che possa guidare l'Iraq verso il porto della pace”.

L'ambasciatore Berzinji all'agenzia Nova: «Papa Francesco verrà in Iraq per diffondere un messaggio di pace e solidarietà tra i fedeli delle varie religioni»

By Il Sismografo

Il 22 maggio scorso l'ambasciatore iracheno Omer Ahmed Karim Berzinji è stato ricevuto in Vaticano per un colloquio con il cardinale Segretario di Stato Parolin. Scopo principale dell'incontro è stata l'organizzazione della Visita Apostolica di Papa Francesco in Iraq. A tal proposito il cardinale Parolin, come riporta l'agenzia internazionale Nova, riterrebbe possibile il viaggio in quanto ormai la sconfitta del sedicente Stato Islamico sembra definitiva. Se confermato, si tratterebbe della prima visita di un Pontefice in terra irachena. (Card. G.B. Re. Giovanni Paolo II nella terra di Abramo - Un viaggio mancato - Osservatore Romano) Il cardinale Parolin stesso si recherà in Iraq per preparare la visita, ribadire il sostegno della Santa Sede all’Iraq e rafforzare le relazioni bilaterali ma solo dopo la formazione del nuovo governo, che dovrebbe nascere dopo le prossime elezioni che si terranno il 30 settembre. Nel lungo articolo dell'agenzia Nova si riporta anche la soddisfazione espressa dall'ambasciatore Berzinji per l'elevazione a cardinale del patriarca di Babilonia dei Caldei, Louis Raphael I Sako, annunciata dal Pontefice il 20 maggio per il concistoro del 29 giugno prossimo. Secondo Berzinji, la nomina di Sako a cardinale «è motivo di orgoglio per l’Iraq - e giunge in momento storicamente giusto, come dimostrazione di sostegno al paese dopo la sua vittoriosa battaglia contro i terroristi dello Stato islamico. Con Sako, l’Iraq avrà una voce in Vaticano e sui media internazionali». La scelta del Papa è ancor più importante poiché, sempre nelle parole del diplomatico, con la nomina del patriarca dei caldei «ha voluto preservare la diversità religiosa in Iraq e sostenere i cristiani nel paese affinché non emigrino, rafforzando le loro radici nazionali». Infine, secondo quanto riferito da Berzinji aall'agenzia Nova, «l’interesse del Papa per il dialogo tra le religioni va di pari passo con quello dell’Iraq». A tal riguardo, l’ambasciatore iracheno presso la Santa Sede sottolinea che «il dialogo è l’unica via per realizzare la pace». Per tale motivo, «l’ambasciata e il governo dell’Iraq condividono le decisioni del pontefice».

Congratulations with Appeal - Eid al-Fitr -

By Chaldean Patriarchate

Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako

In my name and on behalf of the Church community, it gives me great pleasure to extend my sincere congratulations to our Muslim sisters and brothers, on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr al-mubarak with a heartfelt wishes that may God bless our beloved Iraq a prosper and peaceful returns.

Now, that you are celebrating this specific and religious feast after a month of fasting, self-controlling as well as practicing mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation, seeking God’s “face” blessings, I would like to call upon the winning lists of 2018 Iraqi Parliament Election (regardless of  their sizes) to sacrifice for the love of Iraq and Iraqi people, in bearing their national and historical responsibility and do their best in saving our country from its’ current “dangerous” political and social crisis caused by election. Thus, the problem of fraud votes should be solved, otherwise, it will lead Iraq to a constitutional vacuum and an unknown future.

Hence, I am calling all of them to get together around “one table”, and having a courageous dialogue to prepare a work program for the “elected”  government, realistic and comprehensive in accordance with the objectives and prioritized national matters; find a clear mechanism for its implementation; and especially to speed up the forming of a “patriotic” government, a government that represents all Iraqis, a government based on law, integrity and deeds rather than on speeches, a government that improves services, such as electricity, water, roads and helps in reconstructing what have been destroyed.

Meanwhile we, as Iraqis, are “eagerly” awaiting for this initiative to open an important page in our life towards true reconciliation, peace, stability and reconstruction, Christian in all churches are praying these days to have a strong National Government that can lead Iraq to the port of peace and unity.

I wish you a happy Eid El-Fitre

Help Is on the Way for Middle Eastern Christians

By Wall Street Journal
Mark Green

When Islamic State captured the Iraqi town of Telskuf four years ago this week, terrorists desecrated the local Chaldean Catholic church and beheaded congregants on the altar. The slaughter was only one episode from the genocide ISIS waged on Christians and other vulnerable religious groups across its so-called caliphate, nearly exterminating some of the region's most ancient faith communities.

The U.S. stands with the persecuted religious and ethnic communities of the Middle East. And the federal government won't rest until these oppressed people receive the help they need to thrive again. That's the message I will deliver personally to Christian and Yazidi leaders when I visit Iraq this month. On behalf of President Trump, I will assure them that American assistance will soon turn from an inconsistent trickle into a steady stream.
President Trump already has directed U.S. armed forces to finish the fight against the ISIS barbarians, and today the group no longer holds territory in Iraq. But as Vice President Pence said at this year's religious broadcasters convention, "Victory in combat is only half the battle." The president directed his administration last October to end its support for United Nations programs that fail to provide aid for every group in need. Now, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which I lead, is charged with providing more effective and direct support to persecuted religious and ethnic minorities.
Four days after Vice President Pence announced the shift, I directed USAID to develop aid projects that address the challenges facing Christians, Yazidis and other minority groups in the region. To this end, USAID has redirected more than $60 million in humanitarian and stabilization assistance to provide infrastructure support and lifesaving aid in Northern Iraq. The money has helped rebuild schools, hospitals, power stations and wells, and eased the transition of those returning home.
In too many cases, however, assistance has taken too long to arrive. We have yet to reach many of the communities with the greatest need. Decisions made by the previous administration, such as an overreliance on the U.N. and an inadequate appreciation for the work accomplished by faith-based organizations, have proved hard to overcome. And the often rigid processes of federal bureaucracy have slowed implementation further.
At the direction of the president and vice president, USAID is now redoubling its effort to swiftly deliver and distribute the aid that Iraq's persecuted religious communities desperately need. The delays must end, and they will.
Every day of delay brings persecuted communities that much closer to extinction. In Iraq alone, nearly 90% of Christians have fled in the past 15 years, emptying entire villages that had stood for more than a thousand years. The Yazidi population has been similarly decimated. Without immediate additional support, these groups may be forced to continue their unprecedented exodus, perhaps never to return to their ancient homes.
After my visit to Iraq, I will present President Trump with a comprehensive assessment of any roadblocks that prevented the speedy distribution of aid. I also will provide a detailed plan to expedite the delivery of crucial assistance to the most vulnerable communities.
Congress also has a crucial role to play. A more flexible budget and eased regulations would make USAID more effective in fulfilling its mission. And organizations across the federal government must continue working with Iraq to increase its order and stability, which are essential to the delivery of American aid.
The time to act is now. Christians, Yazidis and other persecuted religious communities in the Middle East have suffered unspeakable harm for too long. Their plight has touched the hearts of the American people and stirred this nation to step up with compassion and conviction. President Trump promised to provide them with the help they need to rebuild their communities and restore their hope, and we will work tirelessly to break down any barrier that stands in the way.
The ancient faith communities in Iraq and across the Middle East are counting on us. We will not let them down.

Mr. Green is USAID administrator.

Iraqi Christian village is where ‘In God we trust’ isn’t just a slogan

By Crux

Inés San Martin

Iraq-On a daily basis, millions of Americans use cash without noticing the small imprint on the back side of the bills. Yet halfway across the world, in a small Christian town, the phrase “In God we trust” is uttered daily, and it’s no abstraction - it’s a literal way of speaking about Christ, who people here believe will defend then from Islamic fundamentalists.

Once a thriving Chaldean Catholic community, Karamles today is the shadow of what it used to be, but many are working against the clock to make it what it was before summer ends.

With the financial support of the Knights of Columbus, some 320 families have been able to move back into their homes. In total, 354 houses have been repaired after the entire region was occupied by ISIS in August 2014. Over 70 had been burned, 277 homes had been partially destroyed, and another 41 were burned but will be ready to be returned to their rightful owners soon.

There were 89 homes that were fully destroyed, and rebuilding will have to wait since the individual cost can go up to $60,000.

In addition, the local convent was hit during one of many aerial strikes perpetrated by the government in an effort to drive ISIS out, and there’s literally a hole in the ground where a three-story building used to be.

According to Father Tabet Yousif, a Chaldean priest who’s heading the reconstruction committee of Karamles, the people who’ve gone back are “very happy to have done so, because their identity is in this town.”

He set his mind on rebuilding the village two weeks after ISIS was finally cast out from the town in October 2017.

An immediate need is to find $20,000 to add to the original budget to restore a house that could serve as a convent for two Chaldean sisters, who will soon move to Karamles to teach children at a primary school the committee recently finished rebuilding.

But the priorities this man has are many, and all seem urgent. In addition to the homes for the displaced, the committee for rebuilding the town hopes to:

• Restore the Karamles Secondary School for Girls.
• Build a park for children to play in.
• Finish restoration of the Church of St. Mar Addai, because the one they use now is too small.
• Complete the historic Santa Barbara Church, located at a hill overlooking the town. Because of its strategic location, the church that dates to the seventh century was used by ISIS as a fort for snipers, and several tunnels were built communicating with the town as well as the top of the hill, from where snipers would kill anyone trying to get close.

Un vescovo iracheno testimonia la sua fede e il rapimento subito

By Aleteia
Tony Assaf

IL Vescovo Saad Sirop Hanna non si aspettava di vivere un’esperienza tanto amara in una terra che conosce fin dall’infanzia. Nato nel 1972, mons. Sirop ha conseguito una prima formazione come ingegnere aeronautico, prima di entrare nel seminario di Baghdad. Dopo la sua ordinazione sacerdotale per la diocesi di San Diego, proseguì i suoi studi all’Università Gregoriana di Roma, e nel 2008 ottenne il dottorato in filosofia.

Rapito durante la messa del 15 agosto

Due anni prima, mentre celebrava la Messa del 15 agosto in Iraq, venne rapito da militanti di Al Qaeda. L’evento fu uno choc terribile per lui, che non pensava che gli potesse capitare una cosa simile nel suo Paese. Ci ha detto:

Mi domandavo anzitutto se la cosa stesse davvero accadendo in Iraq. L’Iraq non è più quello che era. Ci sono così tante incomprensioni, differenze, aggressioni… Mi sono posto tali questioni in quanto cristiano e in quanto iracheno. Sono nato a Baghdad e ho vissuto lì tutta la mia infanzia. Sono laureato e, all’epoca, avevo tanti amici di religioni diverse.

Per ventotto giorni, mons. Saad Sirop Hanna si è trovato tra le mani di militanti che lo torturano senza sosta per forzarlo a rinnegare Cristo. Ma la sua fede lo aiuta a tenere duro. «Traggo da Dio la mia forza e a lui debbo la mia nuova vita». All’epoca, la storia di mons. Saad Sirop Hanna fece il giro del mondo e le reazioni internazionali non si sono fatte aspettare. Papa Benedetto XVI inviò una lettera ai capi della Chiesa in Iraq per esortare tutte le parti a lavorare a favore della liberazione di padre Sirop Hanna. Alla fine fu liberato l’11 settembre 2006, dopo ventotto giorni di cattività.

«Le tradizioni caldee ed assire sono in pericolo»

Oggi il presule chiama tutti a combattere l’islamismo e a proteggere i cristiani d’Oriente esposti alle peggiori forme di persecuzione. Nel 2017 ha pubblicato un libro per divulgare la propria testimonianza: Kidnappé en Irak : un prêtre à Bagdad [Rapito in Iraq: un prete a Baghdad, N.d.T.]. «Amo l’Iraq e il mio popolo. Voglio continuare a lavorare qui da prete», ha dichiarato a Baghdad, aggiungendo di avere un gran numero di amici musulmani, per i quali nutre il più vivo affetto».
Ha aggiunto pure di non essere prete solo per i cristiani, ma anche per i musulmani. Un uomo di dialogo necessario al riavvicinamento tra le religioni e al mantenimento della pace.

Spero di poter aiutare i cristiani a superare le sfide e le difficoltà che incontrano in tutti i Paesi del Medio Oriente, in particolare in Iraq, dove spesso la loro situazione è ignorata. Stiamo assistendo a quella che sarà forse la fine di una delle più antiche tradizioni cristiane al mondo. La tradizione apostolica della Chiesa dell’Est: le tradizioni caldee e assire sono in pericolo, il mondo ha bisogno di vedere e di ascoltare la voce di questa Chiesa che soffre.

[Traduzione dal francese a cura di Giovanni Marcotullio]

Un évêque irakien témoigne de son supplice et de sa foi