Pandemic, terror threats: Iraq papal trip is complicated, even for Francis

By National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee

Traveling during an ongoing global pandemic. Heading to a country where suicide bombings are a threat. Preparing for the first meeting between a pope and one of the world's leading Muslim clerics. Even for a pontiff who has undertaken some difficult trips abroad, Pope Francis' planned visit to Iraq, March 5 to 8, has more than a usual share of complexity.
Add to the list: encouraging a small but historic Christian community that is still reeling from three years of devastation wrought by Islamic State militants who destroyed churches and forced hundreds of thousands to flee a brutal fundamentalist regime.
Yet, given all the possible difficulties, Iraqi analysts and Christian leaders told NCR that the mere fact of the pope's coming should outweigh any problems.
As Baghdad-based Marsin Alshamary said when asked if Iraqis would be looking for Francis to broach specific subjects or themes while in the country: "The symbolism of the pope visiting Iraq is quite enough of a gesture." "Even if he came and said the very typical things we expect a religious leader to say, it's still something very important and very symbolic that he has done for Iraq," said Alshamary, an Iraqi and post-doctoral fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, who leads the Chaldean Catholic community in Erbil, also highlighted the simple meaning of the pope choosing to come and visit. "Right from the beginning of his papacy he spoke about the marginalized groups," said Warda. "He is coming to be face to face, to show us he cares about us."
Francis' visit to Iraq, during which he is scheduled to visit six cities over three days, will be his first abroad since November 2019. He canceled all travel planned for 2020 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Although Iraq announced a new partial coronavirus lockdown Feb. 15, including the temporary closure of all the country's mosques and churches, the Vatican is continuing preparations for the trip and has not yet said whether it might be postponed.
The pope and those traveling with him are being vaccinated by the Vatican in advance of the journey.
Local organizers are also stressing that stringent social distancing and masking protocols are being put in place.
Warda, who is overseeing preparations for a planned March 7 Mass at Erbil's Franso Hariri soccer stadium, said organizers are strictly limiting the numbers of those able to attend, assigning seats, and collecting phone numbers. "God forbid any case would emerge, we would know exactly where this person was and we could inform those who around him or her that there was a case," said the archbishop.
The Vatican has not addressed possible concerns for the pope's safety in Iraq.
While violent attacks have largely subsided since the Iraqi government drove the Islamic State group underground in late 2017, there was a twin suicide bombing in Baghdad Jan. 21 that killed at least 32 people.
There was also a rocket attack against U.S.-led coalition forces near Erbil's airport Feb. 15, killing one civilian contractor and injuring others.
Francis has said before that he is not afraid of death or of risking his life in ministry. In a 2015 interview, he said he only asks God that his death not be painful because "I'm a real wimp when it comes to physical pain."
The pope told Catholic News Service Feb. 1 that he would only postpone his planned visit to Iraq if there were a serious spike in coronavirus cases. "I am the pastor of people who are suffering," the pontiff said in explanation for why he feels he must make the trip.
One Vatican official suggested to NCR that Iraq's coronavirus prevention measures might bolster the pope's security. That person, who asked not to be named because they were speaking without permission from superiors, said the measures may limit access to events beyond what otherwise could have been planned.

Encouraging Christian communities
Francis' trip to Iraq will be the pope's 33rd visit abroad since his March 2013 election as pontiff. The itinerary for the visit indicates two main objectives: encouraging Christian communities in the country and pursuing high-level Muslim-Christian dialogue. The first objective will be the focus on March 7, when the pope travels north from Baghdad to visit Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh (Bakhdida).
Mosul and Qaraqosh have historically had significant Christian communities that trace their origins to the earliest decades of the faith, but were decimated under Islamic State group control from 2014 to 2017.
The fundamentalist fighters killed thousands of Christians in what the European Parliament has recognized as a genocide. Hundreds of thousands of others fled as refugees, many heading the 50-some miles east to Erbil, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region, which the Islamic State group never controlled.
Warda's archdiocese took a leading role in offering shelter and help to the refugees. He said at one point they were offering assistance to some 13,000 families, but about 8,000 of those families have now been able to return to their towns of origin. "We've learned from this experience about sharing, generosity," the archbishop said of the experience. "The evilness of ISIS has limited some of the life of the community, but God has opened other doors with love and generosity."
Yousif Kalian, a program specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace based in Erbil, said Francis will be visiting a Christian community "whose spirit has been broken." "What the pope's visit is doing is bringing back some of that hope again," said Kalian, whose work focuses on community reconciliation in the Ninewa province. "The visit is really going to be giving a huge vote of confidence from the pope to the people that they can handle and sustain themselves, despite the challenges." Christians in Iraq belong to a range of rites and traditions and include Syriac, Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian and Melkite communities. While they once numbered about 1.5 million in a total population of about 39 million, their numbers have diminished sharply in the years since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and are estimated now to number in the hundreds of thousands.
While in Mosul, Francis is scheduled to offer a prayer at a memorial for victims of Islamic State group violence.
In Qaraqosh, the pope is to visit the St. Mary al-Tahira cathedral.
The largest Syriac-Catholic church in the Middle East, it is still under repair after bring looted and set on fire by Islamic State group fighters.

Muslim-Christian dialogue
Pursuing Muslim-Christian dialogue will be the pope's focus on March 6, when he travels south from Baghdad to Najaf for a private meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the world's most influential Shiite Muslim clerics.
Alshamary and other experts said they expect that visit, the first of its kind, to be of historic import. "Sistani is such a revered figure in Iraq, such a well-respected religious authority," said Alshamary, who focused her dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the involvement of Shia clerics in Iraqi politics. "It's quite important that they meet."
Gabriel Said Reynolds, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame who has focused on Muslim-Christian relations, said simply that Sistani is "widely regarded as the most authoritative religious actor for Shiite Muslims around the world." Sunni and Shia are the two major branches of Islam.
Francis has been pursuing dialogue with Muslim authorities throughout his papacy, but he has done so especially in the last few years. Iraq will be his ninth visit to a Muslim-majority country. Previous visits have included the first papal trips to Egypt and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which was also the first papal trip to the Arabian Peninsula. Francis has also met several times with the grand imam of Cairo's al-Azhar Mosque, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, who is considered a leading authority for Sunni Muslims worldwide.
 After hosting Francis in Egypt in 2017, el-Tayeb met the pope in Abu Dhabi in 2019 to sign a joint statement known as the "Document on Human Fraternity" that committed the two leaders to supporting interreligious dialogue, working to spread a culture of tolerance and disavowing the use of violence.
Reynolds said he did not know if Sistani in Iraq would also be willing to sign onto the document, but called the text a "revolutionary point" in Muslim-Christian dialogue. "It opens the door for all sorts of possibilities of thinking through questions of religious freedom, freedom of expression, [and] cultural freedoms in the Islamic world," said the theologian.
Kalian highlighted the fact that Sistani is known to be selective about the people he chooses to meet. "Ayatollah Sistani doesn't meet with just anybody," said Kalian. "It is well known and well documented that he only meets with people as a way to send a signal and a sign."
Citing Francis' recent focus on traveling to Muslim-majority nations, Reynolds called Muslim-Christian dialogue something of a "seamless thread" of this pontificate.
"Clearly, there's a trend, and he's deeply concerned about Muslim-Christian dialogue," Kalian said. "It's not just visiting troubled spots like Iraq, which has a political and human rights crisis, but it's specifically Muslim-majority nations. He cares deeply about that."

Padre Ammar Yako: “Questa basilica fa parte della nostra storia”

By Aleteia

La chiesa di Al-Tahira a Qaraqosh, in Iraq, è stata quasi completamente distrutta durante il regime del terrore dell’ISIS (2014-2017).
Grazie al generoso aiuto dei benefattori dell’organizzazione caritativa internazionale Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre (ACS), negli ultimi anni la chiesa è stata ricostruita, e ormai è quasi del tutto restaurata.
Papa Francesco ha confermato che si recherà nella basilica mariana domenica 7 marzo durante la sua visita nel Paese.
La fondazione ha intervistato padre Ammar Yako, che supervisiona la ricostruzione.
Qual è la storia della chiesa di Al-Tahira?
La costruzione della chiesa di Al-Tahira, a Qaraqosh, è iniziata nel 1932. Tutta la popolazione di Qaraqosh ha aiutato nell’opera e ha contribuito volontariamente alla sua costruzione, che si è conclusa nel 1948, quando è stata inaugurata la chiesa. È stato un bel modo per la gente di mostrare la propria fede. Conosciamo molte storie sull’epoca della costruzione della chiesa, tramandate e relative ai nostri padri e nonni. Questa grande chiesa è stata eretta grazie al loro duro lavoro.
In che condizioni era il tempio dopo l’invasione e la distruzione da parte dell’ISIS?
Come sapete, nel 2014 l’ISIS ha conquistato la città, e noi siamo fuggiti in Kurdistan. Dopo tre anni la città è stata liberata e siamo ritornati. Ricordo bene quanto fosse distrutto il tempio. Era completamente in macerie. Hanno distrutto tutte le croci, hanno rubato quello che c’era all’interno della chiesa, le immagini e tutto il resto. I leader dell’ISIS hanno scritto i propri nomi sulle colonne della chiesa, e hanno usato il suo esterno come luogo di addestramento per nuovi combattenti dell’ISIS.
Cos’ha provato quando è tornato per la prima volta e ha visto tanta distruzione?
Quando ho visto la chiesa distrutta e data alle fiamme ho provato per prima cosa una grande tristezza. Era così triste vedere il tempio di Dio così, vuoto e distrutto. Allo stesso tempo, però, ho provato gioia per il fatto di essere tornato in città e di poter rientrare in quella chiesa. Ci sono stati gioia e dolore allo stesso tempo.
Cosa significa per lei essere il responsabile della ricostruzione?
Quando il vescovo mi ha chiesto di dirigere l’équipe di ricostruzione è stato un momento molto felice per me, perché mi sono ricordato di tutte quelle persone che in passato hanno aiutato a costruire la chiesa, i nostri padri e i nostri nonni; mi sono sentito unito a tutti coloro che hanno condiviso la propria fede.
 Come si è svolta la ricostruzione?
La ricostruzione è iniziata nel 2019. La prima fase dell’opera ha consistito nel sistemare i pilastri, ed è durata fino alla fine del 2019. Nel 2020 abbiamo avviato la seconda e la terza fase, ovvero la ricostruzione della chiesa all’interno e all’esterno. Grazie a Dio siamo arrivati alla fase finale della ricostruzione, e speriamo di terminarne presto tutti gli aspetti.
Qual è stata la reazione della comunità di credenti di fronte alla ricostruzione della chiesa?
 La ricostruzione della chiesa di Al-Tahira ha una grande rilevanza per la comunità di Qaraqosh. Tutte le persone di qui sentono che è la loro casa, parte della loro storia, e quindi è molto importante riaprirla. A Qaraqosh abbiamo iniziato ad aiutare la gente a ricostruire le proprie case, anche con l’aiuto della fondazione ACS. Quando abbiamo finito, molte persone ci chiedevano quando avremmo iniziato a ricostruire la chiesa. Grazie a Dio ormai abbiamo quasi terminato. Mi rendo conto che la gente desidera poter tornare a pregare qui e mostrare a tutti che la sua chiesa è aperta e che possiamo pregare di nuovo Dio in questo tempio.
Cosa significa per lei la visita del Papa?
È splendido stare in questo momento qui a Qaraqosh per dare il benvenuto al nostro Papa. Quando hanno annunciato che il Pontefice avrebbe visitato l’Iraq e Qaraqosh, mi sono sentito molto felice di poter accogliere il Santo Padre qui, in questa chiesa, in questa città, e di condividere la nostra fede. Il Papa può aiutarci a vivere la nostra fede in questo periodo, e possiamo mostrargli com’è la nostra vita come cristiani qui, a Qaraqosh, in Iraq.
 Che sfide affrontano i fedeli in Iraq?
 In Iraq, i cristiani affrontano numerose sfide. In primo luogo fanno parte di questo Paese, che è ancora instabile. Al di sopra di tutto, ovviamente, dobbiamo servire Dio perché ci aiuti a portare avanti la nostra vita in Iraq. Come comunità ci troviamo di fronte a molte sfide. Come minoranza non abbiamo grandi possibilità di lavorare, e quindi dobbiamo sforzarci di trovare un impiego per la nostra gente. Nonostante questo, il problema più grande è l’emigrazione. Molte famiglie sono ora lontane da Qaraqosh e dall’Iraq, e se la situazione non migliorerà non potranno ritornare.
Potrebbe inviare un messaggio ai benefattori di ACS?
Vorrei ringraziare ACS per tutto quello che ha fatto per noi quando eravamo sfollati. Quando siamo fuggiti da tutte le città in Kurdistan, ACS ci ha sostenuti per tre anni. Ringrazio tutti i benefattori per il loro aiuto. Anche quando siamo tornati a Qaraqosh ci hanno aiutati a ricostruire case e chiese, e a far fronte a molte altre necessità. Molte grazie, e che Dio vi benedica. Speriamo di poter mostrare insieme al mondo la nostra fede cristiana.
Perché i benefattori di ACS non devono dimenticare la gente di Qaraqosh?
Nella situazione attuale continuiamo ad avere bisogno dell’aiuto delle organizzazioni, e soprattutto di ACS, per le numerose necessità delle chiese di Qaraqosh. Per favore, continuate ad aiutarci, e infondete così nella nostra comunità la speranza di poter continuare a vivere qui a Qaraqosh.

Source: Aid to the Church in Need International
February 19, 2021

Iraq: Father Ammar Yako: “It is part of our history”

Le sfide dell’Iraq, dall’attacco a Erbil ai preparativi per la visita del papa

By Internazionale

 Zuhair al Jezairy

Il 15 febbraio, 14 razzi hanno colpito la base militare statunitense nei pressi dell’aeroporto di Erbil, capoluogo del Kurdistan iracheno.
Un contractor è stato ucciso e altri nove sono rimasti feriti. L’Iran, considerato il principale sospetto, ha negato ogni responsabilità e ha affermato di essere contrario a qualunque azione che possa danneggiare il vicino Iraq.
Anche la maggior parte delle milizie irachene ha condannato l’accaduto. Solo un piccolo gruppo sconosciuto, che si fa chiamare Saraya awliyaa al dam (Brigate dei guardiani del sangue), ha rivendicato di aver condotto l’attacco per mostrare che “non esiste un luogo sicuro per chi occupa l’Iraq”.
Gli iracheni ora attendono con ansia la rappresaglia degli Stati Uniti.
Il 3 gennaio 2020 un attacco simile, durante il quale gli Stati Uniti uccisero il comandante militare iraniano Qassem Soleimani, stava per scatenare una guerra. L’amministrazione statunitense di Joe Biden ha espresso la sua collera per l’attacco, considerato un modo per mettere alla prova Washington.
Ma ha sottolineato che la sua risposta sarà “coordinata con i nostri alleati iracheni”, trattandosi di una “questione di sovranità irachena”.
Per questo motivo l’ambasciatore statunitense a Baghdad ha tenuto degli incontri urgenti con le massime autorità nella capitale e a Erbil.
Queste nuove tensioni giungono in un momento particolarmente difficile per il primo ministro Mustafa al Kadhimi, alle prese con un drastico aumento dei contagi di covid-19.
Ai 3.500 casi giornalieri si sommano la crisi economica causata dal crollo dei prezzi petroliferi e il ritorno delle operazioni militari del gruppo Stato islamico.
Insieme alla sua controparte del governo regionale del Kurdistan, Masrur Barzani, il premier ha avviato un’inchiesta per scoprire chi si nasconde dietro alle Brigate dei guardiani del sangue.
I razzi sono stati una prova difficile tanto per la nuova amministrazione a Washington quanto per il governo iracheno, che deve dimostrare il suo impegno nella limitazione delle armi illegali.
Ma in definitiva si tratta soprattutto dell’ennesima prova per la pazienza degli iracheni, di fronte alla possibilità di una nuova guerra nella loro travagliata terra.

Nessun ritardo
Il 20 febbraio Ismail al Hadidi, consigliere del presidente della repubblica, ha confermato che la decisione di imporre un coprifuoco non inciderà sulla visita del papa in Iraq prevista per il mese prossimo.
Al Hadidi ha dichiarato all’agenzia di stampa ufficiale: “La pandemia e il rafforzamento delle misure restrittive non comprometteranno il programma della visita del pontefice in Iraq”, sottolineando che “il viaggio non subirà ritardi”. “I preparativi per l’accoglienza continuano”, ha aggiunto.
Il cardinale Louis Sako, patriarca della chiesa cattolica caldea in Iraq, ha rivelato il programma del viaggio di papa Francesco in Iraq, spiegando che “il pontefice sarà ricevuto all’aeroporto di Baghdad dal primo ministro. In seguito incontrerà il presidente della repubblica al palazzo della pace e poi le autorità religiose cristiane”. Inoltre, ha aggiunto, “il secondo giorno il papa visiterà Najaf, dove terrà un colloquio con l’ayatollah Ali al Sistani, la massima autorità sciita irachena”.
 Sako ha precisato che in seguito “il pontefice visiterà la storica città di Ur, dove incontrerà i rappresentanti delle diverse religioni del paese, cristiani, musulmani, sabei e yazidi, con la partecipazione anche di un rappresentante della religione ebraica. Lì si svolgerà una preghiera congiunta cristiano-islamica, e poi il papa tornerà a Baghdad per celebrare la messa”.
Secondo il programma il pontefice visiterà anche il governatorato di Erbil e lì incontrerà gli esponenti del governo regionale, poi andrà nella città vecchia di Mosul, da cui manderà un messaggio. La tappa successiva sarà Qaraqosh, per rafforzare la fiducia tra i vicini cristiani e musulmani con l’auspicio di un futuro migliore. Infine il papa tornerà a Erbil per celebrare messa e incoraggiare i cristiani a essere più forti e a non arrendersi alla situazione attuale.

 (Traduzione di Francesco De Lellis)

Rockets target US Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone, no casualties

By Military Times

Qassim Abdul Zahra

Three rockets were fired at Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Monday (February, 22) without causing any casualties, Iraq’s army said. Security officials said the U.S. Embassy was the target.
Two Iraqi security officials said one rocket fell within the perimeter of the vast U.S. Embassy complex and and another fell in the residential neighborhood of Harthiya, outside the Green Zone.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The rockets were launched from the Salam area of Baghdad, a statement from the military said.
It said there were no casualties and an investigation was ongoing. There was minor property damage, including a damaged vehicle.
The Green Zone houses foreign embassies and is the seat of Iraq’s government. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
It was the third attack to target the American presence in Iraq in a week.
A U.S.-led coalition contractor was killed and other civilians were wounded in a rocket attack outside Irbil international airport last Tuesday. A little-known Shiite militant group calling itself the Guardians of Blood Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Saturday, rockets wounded personnel working for a U.S. defense company at Balad airbase in Salahaddin province.
The U.S. Embassy was a frequent target of rocket attacks during the Trump administration.
The pace of attacks abated in the weeks before Biden took office and recently resumed.

Pope’s visit to Iraqi Ziggurat to draw fresh attention to birthplace of Abraham

By Al Arabiya

Pope Francis is due to hold an inter-religious prayer service at the ancient Mesopotamian site of Ur when he visits Iraq next week -- an event local archeologists hope will draw renewed attention to the place revered as the birthplace of Abraham.
 Popular with Western visitors in the 1970s and 1980s, Ur is scarcely visited today after decades of war and political instability shattered Iraq’s international tourism industry. The coronavirus crisis now also keeps local tourists away. Located about 300 km south of the capital Baghdad, the site comprises a pyramid-style Ziggurat and an adjacent residential complex as well as temples and palaces.

It was excavated about 100 years ago by Leonard Woolley, a Briton who recovered treasures rivalling those found in Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt.
But little work has since been done on one of the world’s oldest cities, where urban dwelling, writing and central state power began.
According to the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage director for Ur, Ali Kadhim Ghanim, the complex next to the Ziggurat dates back to about 1900 BC. The father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham is described in the biblical book of Genesis as living in the city before God called upon him to create a new nation in a land he later learned was Canaan.
 “This is why it is believed that this building, or house, was the house of the prophet Abraham,” Ghanim said, pointing at the residential complex.
According to Ghanim, the housing settlement was restored in 1999, after Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope John Paul II, announced a trip to Iraq. But his visit was cancelled when negotiations with the government of then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein broke down.
This time, Ghanim hopes that Pope Francis’ visit will attract international attention to the site, which he says is badly needed to fund restoration works on its palaces and temples.
 “Not only tourism, but we believe that there will be a Christian pilgrimage season,” Ghanim said.
Un Ponte Per, an Italian-based organization, is working with the United Nations Development Program on infrastructure works such as paths, rest areas and signposts to help visitors. Roads around the site are being renovated and powerlines extended ahead of the pope’s visit. But without adequate funding, Ghanim says his administration has been limited to containing further damage to the site, such as digging trenches to divert rainwater from the ruins.
Basra’s Archbishop Habib al-Naufaly stressed the symbolic importance of the pope’s March 5-8 visit as Iraq is still recovering from the war against ISIS that destroyed scores of Christian heritage sites.
The inter-religious prayer service will be attended by Christians, Muslims, Mandaean-Sabaean, Yazidi and other religious minorities present in Iraq. The focus will be on harmony between religious groups in a service the Vatican has named “Prayer for the sons and daughters of Abraham.”

Iraq's ancient Christian community, decimated by violence, fear

By Middle East Online

Some fled after the US-led invasion, others during sectarian bloodshed and more following jihadist attacks.
Iraq's last two violent decades have hollowed out its Christian community which dates back two millennia.
After first settling in the fertile plains of Nineveh province before heading for the busy boulevards of Baghdad, more than one million Christians have in more modern times been uprooted by Iraq's consecutive conflicts.
"By the age of 24, I had already lived through and survived three wars," said Sally Fawzi, an Iraqi Chaldean Catholic, who left her country more than a decade ago and is now living in the US state of Texas.
Some members of Iraq's historic Christian community escaped to the nearby autonomous Kurdish region, others waited in neighbouring Jordan to emigrate and then resettled in countries as far away as Australia.
Many lost hope in their homeland long ago, but see next month's scheduled visit by Pope Francis - the first-ever papal trip to Iraq - as an important opportunity for him to use his voice to garner international support for Iraqis of their faith. Iraq's Christian community is one of the oldest and most diverse in the world, featuring Chaldean, Armenian Orthodox, Protestant as well as other branches of Christianity.
By 2003, there were 1.5 million Christians in a country of 25 million people, or around six percent of the population. But as Iraq's population mushroomed, the percentage of the minorities shrank.
Today, only 400,000 Christians remain in a predominantly Muslim country of 40 million people, said William Warda, co-founder of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation.
Among those who left, nearly half a million resettled in the United States. Others ended up dispersed in Canada, Australia, Norway and other parts of Europe. -
The first wave -
Rana Said, 40, had tried her hardest to stay. Her aunt and uncle were killed in 2007, when US soldiers blindly opened fire on the streets of Mosul after an attack in the regional capital of the northern province of Nineveh. Still, she remained in the city with her husband Ammar al-Kass, 41, a veterinarian. The following year, with Iraq gripped by sectarian bloodletting, a string of assassinations, including of Christians, pushed the Kass family to move to the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan. But by 2013, the region was growing increasingly unstable. The couple finally left their ancestral Iraq and were resettled on the Gold Coast of Australia where they found jobs in their respective professions and have raised three daughters: Sara, 10, Liza, six, and three-year-old Rose.
The young girls have never visited Iraq, although they speak Arabic and a modern dialect of Assyrian -- the ancient language of Christ -- at home.
A year after they resettled, jihadists from the so-called Islamic State group swept through their city. The family watched in horror from halfway around the world. "The fall of Mosul wasn't easy for us," Ammar recounted, particularly IS's destruction of the city's Church of the Virgin Mary, a 1,200-year-old piece of treasured heritage. "That's where my father was married. It was razed and obliterated to the ground," he said. He tried to keep his wife -- pregnant with Liza at the time -- away from computers and phones, afraid the added stress would harm the baby. "I used to have nightmares about IS entering and killing and raping my family. It was a repetitive, horrible dream," Rana said emotionally, of the jihadists who forced women of the Yazidi religious minority and those of other minorities into sexual slavery.

Lingering in limbo -
Saad Hormuz lived the IS nightmare in person. On August 6, 2014, IS fighters swept into Bartalla, the diverse town on the edges of Mosul where Hormuz had worked as a taxi driver. "First, we fled towards Al-Qosh," another Christian town further north, he said. But as the jihadists kept up their pillaging of Nineveh, they escaped to Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region. With his wife Afnan, 48, and their four children -- Natalie, 7, Nores, 15, Franz, 16, and Fadi, 19 -- they lived in a church for a month before renting an apartment at $150 per month for nearly three years. That severely strained their finances.
Three years later, Iraq's military declared it had freed Bartalla from IS's grip. The Hormuz family was elated and rushed back to resume life in their hometown. But they found their home had been torched and ransacked, and that members of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful state-sponsored paramilitary network formed from mostly-Shiite armed groups and volunteers to fight IS, now controlled Bartalla.
 "We lived in fear. There were checkpoints and militias everywhere. Once, they even asked my wife to wear a veil," said Hormuz.
 "So I decided to sell everything, even my car, and move to Jordan," he told AFP. They have lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Amman since February 2018, hoping to be resettled permanently in Canada, where he and his wife have family connections. With Covid-19 slowing down all international travel, the immigration process has been indefinitely frozen as their savings dwindle further. Registered as a refugee in Jordan, Hormuz does not have the right to work legally and relies on soup kitchens at Amman's few churches to keep his family fed. "I hope that through his visit to Iraq, the pope will ask countries receiving Christian refugees to help us," he said. "Going back to Iraq is out of the question."

Exile and rebirth -
Many in Chaldean Bishop Saad Sirop Hanna's parishes in Sweden feel the same way. Born in Baghdad, Hanna, 40, was sent in 2017 to lead Europe's largest Chaldean congregation of around 25,000 people, who had arrived in Sweden in waves over the past four decades. He lived through much of the violence they had fled, describing it as "great chaos." In 2006, he was kidnapped after presiding over mass in the Iraqi capital. "I was held and went through lots of experiences -- including torture and isolation," Hanna told AFP. "This experience also gave me strength, truth be told. I was born again. I look at life again with a great blessing and a great love," he said. There are more than 140,000 Iraqi-born residents in Sweden, including Raghid Benna, a native of Mosul who resettled in the eastern town of Sodertalje in 2007. "There are so many Chaldeans here that I don't even feel like I'm in exile," said Benna, a father of two.
For Sally Fawzi, 38, who was resettled in the US as a refugee in 2008, memories of home can be painful. "My family was devastated in 2007 when we learned that my two great aunts in Kirkuk had been stabbed to death at night in their home just because they were Christians," she told AFP. "Today, I have a house, a beautiful family of my own, a job, and my immediate family live in the same city, but I miss my Baghdad house and friends the most," Fawzi said. "It will never be the same."

From bloodshed to bankruptcy -
As young families escape Iraq, they often leave their older relatives behind, said Warda of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation. "A Christian family was typically five members. Now it's down to three," he said.
 In Baghdad, the once-thriving community of 750,000 Christians has shrunk by 90 percent. Among them is Younan al-Farid, a priest who has stayed on in the capital even after his brother emigrated to Canada and his sister to the United States. With fewer worshippers, "up to 30 percent of Iraq's churches closed," Farid told AFP. After nearly two decades of bloodshed and bombings, Iraq entered a period of relative calm following IS's territorial defeat in late 2017. But that hasn't stopped the flight of minorities. "People are still leaving. Christians are just trying to save up enough money, and then as soon as they can, they emigrate," said Farid. The country's parlous economy is the main driver of emigration now, Christians across the country told AFP. The pandemic triggered a worldwide recession, and Iraq faced the additional challenge of collapsing oil prices, which slashed state revenues from crude sales. That has led to delays or cuts in public sector salaries in federal Iraq as well as the autonomous Kurdish region, where many Christians still live.
"I only receive one salary every two months, and sometimes not even the full salary," lamented Haval Emmanuel, a Chaldean government worker originally from northern Iraq. "As soon as I get paid, I have to pay debts from the preceding weeks and then I have nothing left."

An 'angel', meeting 'demons' -
Emmanuel grew up in Iraq's southernmost city of Basra, then married and lived in Baghdad until 2004, when a bomb detonated outside the school his children attended. Now grown, one of his daughters has emigrated to Norway with her husband, and his brother and sister have each moved their families to Lebanon. Emmanuel, his wife and their three other children are eking out a living in Arbil as they await a response for their own resettlement requests. "We're suffocating: there's no social care, no health services, no public schools, no work," he told AFP at his modest home near Arbil's Chaldean Archdiocese. It irked him to see the lack of public services in oil-rich Basra, piles of rubbish disfiguring Baghdad's historic Rasheed Street, or posters of late Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini in squares and streets in southern Iraq. "It's supposed to be a public place, but it makes me feel like I have no place here," said Emmanuel. "If they open everything up, I guarantee that by tomorrow, there won't be any Christians left. At least abroad, we will finally feel respected as humans."
The economic downturn, the poor quality of life, the shrinking space for minorities -- Emmanuel blamed it all on an entrenched political class seen as deeply corrupt. And there's little the pope can do to change that.
"The pope is like an angel coming down on Iraq, but how many demons will he find here? A man of peace visiting a group of warlords -- how could he change them?" he said.
Emmanuel, whose daughter will sing in the choir that is set to welcome Pope Francis when he arrives in Arbil, broke into a bitter smile. "We're expecting the pope. But we're not expecting much from his visit."

Pope’s Iraq visit will inspire unity and peace, says leading bishop

By The National

A visit to Iraq by the leader of the world's Catholics will help to bring a spirit of unity and reconciliation to revive the war-torn country, a senior bishop told The National.
The visit from March 5 to 8 will be the first trip abroad by Pope Francis since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. It will also be the first time Iraq welcomes the sovereign of the Vatican City.
“Every step in this visit is significant and has its value in encouraging people to be united and work together to achieve peace,” said Auxiliary Bishop Basel Yaldo of Baghdad, who is the Catholic Church’s general coordinator for the trip covering four provinces.
Many of Iraq’s Christians left the country following the US-led invasion of 2003, when sectarian warfare prompted them to flee.
Attacks by ISIS on minority groups in 2014 delivered a major blow for Iraq's multi-denomination Christian communities, and many have not returned to their homes in Mosul and other cities.
From around 1.5 million Christians prior to the US-led invasion, only estimated 250,000 Christians remain in the country today.
“We hope to see the outcome of this visit [as helping] Iraq to be an open-minded nation, especially by restoring the spirit of youth to live happily together, building their country and securing a better future for the next generation,” Bishop Yaldo said.
 The bishop is one of the two Auxiliary Bishops of Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako.
 “The visit will guarantee visibility to Christians by giving great significance and relevance to their presence in this part of the world and their suffering throughout history,” he said.
Iraq is home to many different eastern rite churches, both Catholic and Orthodox. The Catholic Church hopes the Pope's visit will encourage Iraqi Christians to return to their homes, he said.
The first papal visit to Iraq comes at the invitation of the Iraqi government, led by President Barham Salih and the head of Iraq’s Catholic Church, Cardinal Sako. Baghdad described it as a “historic event” that sends a message of peace to Iraq and the whole region.
 It will see Pope Francis stop in several cities across the country, including Baghdad, Erbil, Mosul and the ancient southern city of Ur, home of the patriarch Abraham, the father of the three monotheistic religions Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
“Ur is the highlight of the visit because Abraham represents the sign of unity for all of us who inhabit this land,” Bishop Yaldo said.
 While there, Pope Francis will pray and meet representatives of all religions in Iraq to promote dialogue and coexistence. “Seeing Abraham’s house will be a great symbol of unity for all religions that have this element in common,” he said.
 The Pope had hoped to make the trip last year but his plans were cancelled, first by security concerns and then because of the coronavirus.
 Bishop Yaldo said there were still concerns on these two elements but the Church’s main worry is to “secure the safety of everyone,” he said.
Pope Francis is also expected to meet Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in the southern holy city of Najaf.
The bishop said it would be a "private visit" between the two religious figures which the Church expects to be based on “solidarity and coexistence”. “We are waiting for peace to prevail from this trip as Iraq has suffered immensely throughout the years,” he said. The two religious figures are expected to sign a document on "human fraternity for world peace" – an interfaith text condemning extremism that Pope Francis signed with the leading Sunni cleric, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed Al Tayeb, in 2019.

Ousted by war, Iraq's Christians struggle to reclaim homes

By Rudaw

Sarah Benhaida

Fleeing war or threats of persecution, Iraq's Christians left behind thousands of homes in recent years - returning to find them occupied by militiamen or secretly sold using fabricated deeds.

Getting those houses back, families, clergy and officials told AFP, is a dizzying bureaucratic process that usually ends in failure.

"In the end, I sold my home at the price they demanded," said Fawzi Bulos, a Catholic veterinarian, who once owned a spacious house on the Iraqi capital's plush Palestine Street.

He hasn't stepped foot in it since 2007.

At the time, Baghdad was gripped by a sectarian war that had erupted following the 2003 US-led invasion.

Fearing persecution, Bulos took his dentist wife and children north to the relative calm of Iraqi Kurdistan.

But soon, squatters moved into his home.

For years, he begged high-level government officials and military commanders to evict them, even travelling to Baghdad when it calmed down to see the house in person.

Mediation efforts ended in death threats and a legal complaint failed -- the squatters were too well-connected.

A decade after he fled, Bulos reluctantly sold his home to the squatters for around $400,000, the same amount he had spent in legal fees and bribes paid to opportunistic middlemen promising to resolve the case.

"I thought it was better I come out alive," he said.

Forced doors, fake deeds

Before 2003, Baghdad counted a diverse Christian population.

But once sectarian bloodletting began, they fled to Iraqi Kurdistan or abroad, leaving their homes in the care of relatives or Muslim neighbours until they could return.

Within months, many discovered that other families had moved in, claiming to be the real owners, or that armed factions had turned their homes into command centres.

"In many cases, people just broke down doors. In others, they tampered with the deeds," said Yunan al-Farid, a Greek Orthodox priest in Baghdad who advocates on behalf of victims of squatting.

Muslims lost their homes in similar ways following Saddam Hussein's ouster, either during the chaotic civil war or as retribution against members of his toppled regime.

In 2008, with sectarian violence easing, Iraq created a commission to return homes in Baghdad to their rightful owners.

More than a decade later, the body told AFP it had successfully returned more than 26,500 homes in Baghdad, now a city of 10 million people.

Among them were only 50 Christian-owned homes, said current commissioner Mudhir al-Mulla. The body has not published the overall number of return requests it has received.

'We have no one'

One of the reasons is bureaucracy, with dozens of stamps and signatures needed to process a complaint.

Even Christian owners who acquired eviction orders found security forces unable or unwilling to enforce them, said William Warda, who heads the Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation.

After seeing fellow Christians lose their homes even with court orders, many are too skeptical to even begin the process.

"Then, judges say they can't do anything unless they are presented with a complaint," Warda said.

More broadly, Christians say the system is rigged.

The post-2003 power-sharing system paved the way for Shiite parties and armed groups to win unprecedented sway in Iraq's parliament, ministries and security forces.

Christians, who make up less than one percent of Iraq's 40 million people today, were granted a quota of five lawmakers in the 329-seat legislature.

But the MPs are seen as weak, and beholden to the larger political factions with whom they have aligned.

"At least Muslims can go to their political parties or tribes, who will defend them," said Farid, the Greek Orthodox priest. "But us, we have no one."

Little hope to go home

Iraq's Christians were hit with another devastating blow in 2014, when the Islamic State group swept through their historic heartland in the northern province of Nineveh.

Tens of thousands of Christians fled their homes, often forgetting their deeds.

Returning after ISIS's defeat in 2017, they found their properties had been taken over by armed groups that had gained tremendous power after battling the jihadis.

Many of the occupying forces were themselves minorities, including Christian, and were subsequently blacklisted by the US for illegally seizing civilian property.

In recent months, an unlikely figure has emerged as a self-styled champion of the issue - cleric and former militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

A terrifying name in the 2000s for US troops and Iraqi minorities alike, Sadr now heads parliament's largest bloc.

He recently called for Christian-owned homes to be protected and returned to their rightful owners.

With a bitter smile, Iraqi Christians and government officials pointed out to AFP that a number of forced expropriations were carried out by Sadrists themselves.

With a historic visit by Pope Francis due in March, the issue could gain new traction - but advocates are not hopeful.

"Of the cases I know, 20 percent were resolved. But the remaining 80 percent are still a huge problem," said Farid.

Without institutions, some said, Christians are forced to beg for rights from top leaders, like second-class citizens.

"There's no law, no institution to guarantee Iraq's diversity and citizenship for all," Warda told AFP.

"And as long as this is the case, Christians will be subject to the whims of the powers that be."

Amid scars of war, Iraqi archbishop readies for pope

By France24

From Mosul's rubble-strewn streets to ancient churches at Karamlesh, badly damaged by the Islamic State group, Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel is preparing for the first-ever papal visit to Iraq.

Amid the cleanup and reconstruction, the priest has ensured some scars of war from IS's brutal campaign remain -- a broken chalice, a smashed cross on a church bell tower -- to remember the horrors the Christians of Iraq's Nineveh plains have survived.

"We forgive, without forgetting," said Michaeel, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, as he visited Karamlesh and other war-ravaged Christian villages of northern Iraq.

"But the most important thing is that joy enters the hearts of all, because this is not a simple formal visit -- it is a spiritual moment," he said with an infectious smile.

Since he learnt that Pope Francis would visit Iraq in March, the clergyman has seen his workload double.

"We're under enormous pressure: the Holy Father is not your average person -- he's the representative of a state and of all Catholics worldwide," Michaeel told AFP.

- Ancient churches in ruins -

Pope Francis has previously shied away from using bullet-proof vehicles in favour of a more open "popemobile", the better to meet people, but that may be difficult in a country where security threats still linger.

Aged 84, he may also struggle to make his way through the uneven pavements and debris-filled alleyways of Mosul.

"Everyone is going to want to get close to him, so it's a huge job," said Michaeel. "All security officials are going to be on their toes."

Michaeel checks on preparations by local choirs and scout troops.

He also coordinates with priests who will translate masses between Latin, Arabic, Italian and a form of Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus Christ, that is still spoken in Iraq's north.

It will be a first for the pope, too, as he will preside over his first-ever liturgy in the Eastern rite.

There is no cathedral or stadium large enough to hold the numbers of worshippers expected to turn up for a mass in Nineveh province, but authorities are working on a possible open-air venue.

In the interim, Michaeel is checking on more than a dozen churches -- many dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries -- that remain in ruins.

One is Miskinta Church, still heavily damaged, but the worst is the church of Saint Simon, its stone walls collapsing and its crypts filled with rubble and rubbish.

- 'Mosaic of a thousand colours' -

Michaeel, a native of Mosul, a melting pot of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities, worked as an oil engineer before he answered a calling to join the Church.

He is well known for his work in 2014 saving hundreds of rare manuscripts and scrolls by piling them into his car as IS was approaching.

Now, Michaeel wants to show the pope the beauty of Iraq's patchwork of minorities.

"This country is a mosaic of a thousand colours, and you can't leave it broken apart the way it is today," he said.

Michaeel told AFP that the pope's "strong words, his blessing, and his moral support" would help bring communities back together.

It is a view that lies at the heart of the pope's visit, especially when he holds inter-religious prayers at the ancient city of Ur in Iraq's south.

It is the site where Abraham, the father of three religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- is thought to have been born.

The pope's prayers will bring Christians and Muslims together, as well as the faithful from the ancient religions of the Yazidis and Sabeans.

"This tour across Iraq is extremely important," said Michaeel. "Not just for Christians but for all Iraqis."

Los muros que protegen la catedral de Bagdad aparecen con unos grafitis de bienvenida al Papa

By COPE

Foto Il Sismografo Blogspot

La visita del Papa Francisco a Irak tendrá lugar del 5 al 8 de marzo y será el primer viaje internacional del Papa Francisco en más de un año debido a la pandemia del coronavirus.
El Gobierno anunció nuevas restricciones por el aumento de casos de la covid-19, entre estas la cuarentena estricta los fines de semana y el cierre de todos los lugares de culto hasta nuevo aviso.
 "La catedral de San José en Bagdad está rodeada de bloques de cemento para contener explosiones. Sobre ellos han pintado carteles de bienvenida al Papa. ¡Quedan 11 días para el viaje!", ha publicado la corresponsal de COPE en Italia y el Vaticano, Eva Fernández, en su cuenta de Twitter.
En la tarde del sábado, 6 de marzo, el Santo Padre pronunciará la Homilía de la Santa Misa en la catedral caldea de 'San José' en Bagdad.

La agenda que seguirá el Papa en su viaje a Irak
Las nuevas directrices entrarán en vigor dos semanas antes del viaje del Papa Francisco, que programó su visita a Irak del 5 al 8 de marzo. El programa del Papa incluye una Misa en la catedral caldea de San José en Bagdad el 6 de marzo y una visita a la catedral siríaca de la Inmaculada Concepción en Bakhdida el 7 de marzo. El 14 de febrero, el Nuncio Apostólico en Irak, Mons. Mitja Leskovar, se reunió con el primer ministro iraquí Mustafa al-Kadhimi para organizar los preparativos de la visita papal.
La Agencia de Noticias Shafaqna Shia informó que Al-Kadhimi dijo en la reunión que el Gobierno de Irak da la bienvenida al viaje del Papa y sus esfuerzos para contrarrestar el extremismo en el país. También, está previsto que el Papa Francisco se reúna con el primer ministro inmediatamente después de su llegada a Bagdad el 5 de marzo y antes de viajar al palacio presidencial para visitar al presidente iraquí Barham Salih.
Durante su visita a Irak, el Papa Francisco tiene previsto reunirse el 6 de marzo en Najaf con Ali al-Sistani, líder de los musulmanes chiítas en Irak. El Santo Padre luego viajará a la llanura de Ur en el sur de Irak, que la Biblia registra como el lugar de nacimiento de Abraham. En Ur, el Papa pronunciará un discurso en una reunión interreligiosa.
Un sacerdote en Irak ha señalado que las restricciones nacionales de coronavirus en Irak no deberían aplicarse a la región autónoma del norte del Kurdistán iraquí, donde está programado que Francisco vaya el último día completo de su visita.
Por otra parte, será recibido en el aeropuerto de Erbil el 7 de marzo por las autoridades religiosas y civiles del Kurdistán iraquí antes de viajar a Mosul para orar por las víctimas de la guerra en la plaza Hosh al-Bieaa.
El Papa Francisco visitará comunidades cristianas en la llanura de Nínive y ofrecerá una Misa en un estadio de Erbil. Estas comunidades cristianas sufrieron mucho bajo la ocupación del Estado Islámico de 2014 a 2016, lo que provocó que muchos cristianos huyeran de la región. El Papa ha expresado repetidamente su cercanía a estos cristianos perseguidos.

Mosul’s Christians struggle to rebuild destroyed housing

By Rudaw

Tahsin Qasim

February 21, 2021

Now in his seventies, Joseph Gabriel has decided to return to his damaged house in Mosul, despite the property’s uninhabitable state.

ISIS militants had taken hold of the property during their three year tenure in the city. Like many other residents of the city, the Christian local has yet to receive financial assistance to repair his home.

“This is my house. I bought it for a handsome amount of money,” Gabriel told Rudaw on Friday.

“It is uninhabitable. How am I supposed to live in it? [...] I should be compensated in order to be able to cover the cost of repairing my house, to reside in it with my wife,” he added.

Many churches still lie in ruin nearly seven years after ISIS swept through the province of Nineveh, with others slowly being rebuilt with the hopes Christians will return.

Only 50 families have returned to Mosul since the city was liberated from ISIS in mid-2017, according to Shahr Nuri, a priest at Mosul’s Al-Bishara church.

“Activities are taking place at the Al-Bishara church in Mosul. Renovation works are coming to an end at the Mar Petros Chaldean Church. I believe, in the future, there will be more churches to be opened with the help of organizations,” said the priest.

ISIS destroyed more than 30 churches in Mosul and 40 across the Nineveh Plains during their rule, according to data received by Rudaw from Chaldean bishop Najib Mikhael and MP Klara Odisho Yaqub in 2020.

Most Christians fled to the Kurdistan Region as the terror group advanced.

Some 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq before 2003.

Only 350,000 remain, according to Mikhael and MP Yaqub.

Translation by Zhelwan Zeyad Wali

4,500 people register to see Pope hold Mass in Erbil: Organizer

By Kurdistan 24

Halgurd Sherwani

February 21, 2021

For the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in March, roughly 4,500 people have so far registered to attend a Mass that the pontiff is scheduled to hold in Erbil, according to one organizer.

The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will say Mass in the autonomous Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil as well as meeting various top officials during his visit to Iraq early next month.

Soon after the announcement was initially made, preparations for the visit began in Iraq and the autonomous Kurdistan Region alike, including the opportunity for members of the general public to sign up for Francis' appearances.

As registration for the Mass in Erbil reached its deadline on Thursday, “4,500 people have registered themselves,” to attend the event in the capital’s Franso Hariri International Stadium on March 7, the official who heads the registration process told Kurdistan 24.

The registered attendees will have “an ID card” which will allow them to enter the stadium on that day, he said, adding that the registry is being run by Erbil’s Catholic University.

“The names of those who could not visit the campus to register will be sent to us via the churches they have coordination with,” concluded the organizer.

Notably, the pontifical visit to both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region will be the first of its kind in history.

In mid-2019, Pope Francis announced that he intended to embark on his first visit to Iraq the following year, but it was postponed amid regional tensions and ongoing anti-government protests across southern and central parts of the country.

Despite leading the religious event, the Pope will also meet with various top-level officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), including Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Editing by John J. Catherine

For Iraqi Christian youth, papal visit brings Church closer to home

By Crux

Elise Ann Allen

February 20, 2021

An image of Pope Francis hand-painted
by Iraqi youth in Qaraqosh 
Photo by Fr. Roni Momika

A priest from Qaraqosh helping to prepare the city’s youth for Pope Francis’s visit next month has said the fact that a pope is traveling to the country for the first time has shown young people that the Church, which can often seem far away, is close to them.
 “Here in Qaraqosh, we are so happy that the pope will come to visit us,” said Iraqi Father Roni Momika in comments to Crux. Calling Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to Iraq “a historic visit,”
Momika noted that most Christians in the country have suffered some form of violence or persecution for their faith, with hundreds of thousands forced to leave everything behind and live as refugees during the 2014-2017 ISIS insurgency of the Nineveh Plain.

“This visit will give us the strength to stay here in Qaraqosh and to continue our life,” he said, voicing hope that the pope’s visit will have a political impact. Once Pope Francis comes, Momika said, “the government will take care of us.”
 Christians in Iraq have long been discriminated against and have often complained of being treated like second-class citizens, making the pope’s visit all the more important to the country’s tiny Christian minority. Young people in particular are “very excited” that Pope Francis will come, Momika said.
Speaking of those in his home city of Qaraqosh – once dubbed the “Christian capital” of Iraq and where the headquarters of the Syriac Catholic Church is located – Momika said youth in the village used to think “that no pope would ever come to Iraq.” “Now when they heard that Pope Francis would come to visit Iraq, they felt that the head of the Catholic Church is near,” he said, adding, “Iraqi Christians are in pain, they have lost everything, but the Church is with them.”
A Syriac Catholic priest from Qaraqosh, Momika was ordained a deacon and then a priest in a refugee camp in Erbil in 2016, after ISIS had taken over swaths of Iraq’s northern Nineveh Plain. Once villages on the Plain were liberated, Momika moved back to his hometown of Qaraqosh and led women’s groups before moving to Lebanon, where he is currently completing his studies. Momika was given permission to return to Qaraqosh to assist in preparations for the pope’s March 5-8 visit to Iraq, which includes a stop in Qaraqosh.
The trip will also include stops in Baghdad, Erbil, Qaraqosh, Mosul, the Plain of Ur, and Najaf, where Francis is scheduled to meet privately with one of the top authorities in Shi’a Islam, Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani.
He will visit Qaraqosh on March 7, a packed day for the pope which also includes stops in Mosul and Erbil. In Qaraqosh, Francis will host a meeting with the local community inside the church of the Immaculate Conception, which was burned and vandalized by ISIS, with some graffiti still visible on the charred stone walls. After praying the Angelus, the pope will then leave and head back to Erbil for Mass.
Ahead of the pope’s visit to Qaraqosh, Momika has been tasked specifically with preparing young people in the area, as most have limited knowledge of the pope and the Vatican – things that often seem distant and out of touch with their daily reality. To get young people ready, Momika helped organize a large event last week attended by some 7-800 youths from Qaraqosh and surrounding villages such as Bartala, Karamles, Bahzani, and Bashiqa. In addition to discussing scripture and evangelization, speakers at the event also gave talks on Pope Francis himself, and the special attention he pays to young people and to the poor and marginalized, including migrants and refugees.
“There were a lot of young people who didn’t know a lot about the pope or the Church, but now after this youth day they started to research and they want to know everything about Pope Francis, especially when they heard that Pope Francis is a friend of the poor, a friend of families and a friend of youth,” Momika said.
After the event, “I think Pope Francis became closer for young people,” he said. Things started off with a major procession through the streets of the city, hoisting a large cross at the front of the crowd as they processed through Qaraqosh. Once they arrived at the hall where the event was being held, they opened with a prayer in Syriac and Aramaic.
Throughout the day talks were given by priests, nuns, monks, and even the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Mouche, with the focus being on what Pope Francis has said and written about young people, the poor, and families. Momika himself spoke about young people, and the pope’s invitation to brotherhood and solidarity, as well as his frequent encouragement for youth to go to take the Gospel to the streets.
Youths also practiced a song and dance that they will perform for Pope Francis when he arrives to Qaraqosh, and they painted a large banner of Pope Francis that will be hung up during the visit. They also went around the city hanging up posters and banners of welcome for Pope Francis, with words of welcome written in both Syriac and Italian.
Momika voiced his conviction that the faith of Iraqi Christians will be strengthened as a result of the papal visit. “I think it will be good, because Iraqi people and especially people in the Middle East have a strong faith,” he said, adding that for him personally, the pope’s decision to come “will push us to be even stronger in faith and to stay here and to say that we are Christians, and that we are proud we are Christians.”

Iraqi officials: Rockets strike north air base, one injured

By AP

February 20, 2021

At least four rockets struck an Iraqi airbase Saturday night, the Iraqi military said in a statement, while other officials said one person was wounded at the base where an American defense company services combat aircraft.
Four security officials said that the individual wounded at Balad airbase in Salahaddin province worked for the company, and one of them said his nationality was South African.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
They said U.S. defense company Sallyport has its headquarters within the airbase, and currently has 46 personnel there contracted to provide base services to support Iraq’s F-16 program.

Iraq: delegazione del Vaticano nel sud del Paese per la visita del Papa

By Agenzia Nova

Una delegazione della Santa Sede è giunta ieri nel governatorato di Dhi Qar, nel sud dell’Iraq, nel quadro di una ricognizione preparatoria per la visita di papa Francesco nel Paese, prevista per il 5-8 marzo prossimi.
La rappresentanza del Vaticano, formata da 15 persone, ha visitato la ziqqurat della città di Ur, presso Nassiriya, per verificare i preparativi in corso per la visita del pontefice.
Secondo una fonte locale citata dal quotidiano panarabo “Asharq al Awsat”, “la delegazione potrebbe effettuare un giro in alcuni istituti sanitari della città”.
La città di Nassiriya, e più in generale il governatorato di Dhi Qar, di cui essa è capoluogo, si trovano in una situazione di particolare instabilità da più di un anno, a seguito delle proteste popolari del movimento Tishrin (Ottobre) contro la situazione di sicurezza, il collasso dei servizi e la disoccupazione.

L’Arcivescovo siro cattolico Nathanael: ecco la Chiesa viva che accoglierà Papa Francesco

By Fides

La comunità cristiana che accoglierà Papa Francesco nel suo viaggio in Iraq “è povera, piccola, senza potere politico, ma di certo è una Chiesa viva, custodita nella fede nel Signore Gesù, fecondata anche dalla testimonianza di chi ha attraversato persecuzioni. Non aspettiamo la visita del Papa come pretesto per essere compatiti: la attendiamo come un segno che il Papa e la Chiesa universale ci vogliono bene, e che qui c’è un futuro anche per noi”.
Così l’Arcivescovo Nathanael Nizar Samaan, a capo della diocesi siro- cattolica di Hadiab, nel Kurdistan iracheno, descrive all’Agenzia Fides attese e fervore con cui i battezzati iracheni aspettano l’arrivo del Vescovo di Roma, per la visita apostolica in programma dal 5 all’8 marzo.
Le parole dell’Arcivescovo, nativo di Qaraqosh, non sono venate da lamenti e recriminazioni. Vibrano di fede, speranza e carità. “Noi cristiani iracheni - assicura Nizar Samaan, tornato in Iraq nel 2019 dopo lunghi anni di servizio pastorale reso tra le comunità siro cattoliche in Europa - non abbiamo nessuna ‘agenda’ nostra da promuovere approfittando della visita papale. Quando vedi che il Papa in persona viene da noi, questo è un segno inequivocabile che non siamo soli, che la Chiesa ci vuole bene, e questo ci basta. Per noi, è un dono prezioso per andare avanti nel nostro cammino, e portare avanti la missione a cui siamo chiamati in queste terre. Ma anche per gli altri, per tutto il mondo, sarà bello poter riscoprire attraverso la ‘lente’ della visita papale che qui ci sono comunità vive, che hanno tutto il desiderio di rimanere qui per il futuro, di non isolarsi e di vivere in fraternità con gli iracheni di altre fedi, nonostante la povertà, l’esiguità dei propri numeri, le sofferenze e i tanti problemi quotidiani”.
Nel programma del viaggio, l’Arcivescovo Nathanael è coinvolto soprattutto nella organizzazione della Liturgia eucaristica che Papa Francesco presiederà domenica 7 marzo nello stadio di Erbil. “Sarà l’unico evento moltitudinario nel programma della visita papale – spiega l’Arcivescovo a Fides –, perché in tutti gli altri appuntamenti del programma, anche a Baghdad e a Qaraqosh, gli accessi saranno limitati. Allo stadio ‘Franso Hariri’ di Erbil, prenderanno parte alla messa almeno 10mila persone. Lo stadio potrebbe contenerne 30mila, ma purtroppo anche a Erbil la pandemia da Covid-19 ha costretto a limitare gli accessi. Almeno la metà dei presenti verranno da località del Kurdistan iracheno come Sulaimanyya, Dohuk, e Ankawa, il sobborgo di Erbil dove anche tanti sfollati provenienti da Mosul e dalla Piana di Ninive. Il resto dei biglietti di ingresso li abbiamo distribuiti tra le diocesi di tutto il Paese. La liturgia sarà celebrata in rito latino, e verrà scandita anche da canti in arabo e in aramaico”.
La preparazione della visita papale – sottolinea l’’Arcivescovo siro cattolico - è stata anche occasione di una intensa collaborazione interrituale ed ecumenica tra le diverse comunità cristiane: “Preparando insieme i diversi momenti della visita papale” racconta a Fides Nathanael Nizar Samaan “abbiamo sperimentato anche la comunione tra di noi. Abbiamo messo da parte chiusure e settarismi, attestando davanti a tutti che come cristiani iracheni condividiamo la stessa missione di annunciare il Vangelo di Cristo nelle nostre terre. Da questa comunione è fiorita anche l’apertura ai nostri fratelli musulmani, che stanno aspettando anche loro Papa Francesco con tanta trepidazione. Anche loro vogliono dire a Papa Francesco: ‘sei il benvenuto’, e accoglierlo come un fratello”.

Il cardinale Sandri: il Papa in Iraq per portare gioia e consolazione

By Vatican News
20 febbraio 2021

Giancarlo La Vella

Tutto l’Iraq attende con trepidazione la visita di Papa Francesco, dal 5 all’8 marzo prossimi. Il Paese del Golfo, dopo anni di conflitti e violenze, che hanno ridotto allo stremo la popolazione civile. Il Pontefice porterà il suo conforto alla minoranza cristiana, ma anche a tutti gli iracheni. Nel corso della sua visita il Papa avrà modo anche di incontrare i rappresentanti delle altre religioni.
Il cardinale Leonardo Sandri, prefetto della Congregazione per le Chiese orientali, nella nostra intervista auspica che il viaggio di Francesco non sia un momento di mestizia e di tristezza, ma sia un segno di speranza.

Non vorrei che il viaggio del Papa in Iraq sia avvolto da una specie di ombra di tristezza. Invece deve essere per me un viaggio all’insegna della gioia, perché il Papa va a portare a questo popolo, alla Chiesa cattolica e a tutti gli iracheni un annuncio di consolazione, di pace, di ammirazione per tutto quello che loro hanno sofferto e questo messaggio è in particolare per i cristiani e per i cattolici, per quelli che hanno testimoniato la loro fede fino allo spargimento di sangue, e per i vescovi, per i pastori, che sono rimasti con i fedeli, non sono andati via in durante tutta questa guerra, violenze, soprusi, bombardamenti, persecuzioni. Sono rimasti a capo e al servizio dei loro fedeli. Quindi sarà un viaggio di gioia, di consolazione, di partecipazione, di amicizia di tutta la Chiesa cattolica verso questo popolo, sia cristiani che non cristiani.
Il viaggio di Papa Francesco sarà anche un momento di dialogo con le altre religioni, in particolare quella islamica, alla luce del fatto che anche i non cristiani hanno salutato con favore la decisione di Papa Francesco di recarsi in Iraq?
Certo. Il Papa è stato invitato proprio dalle autorità del Paese e devo dire tutte le volte che io sono stato in Iraq o in altri Paesi a maggioranza musulmana non ho mai ricevuto nessun segnale negativo, nessuna antipatia, niente di sgradevole, ma, al contrario, segnali di apertura. Questo credo che sia la base per poter dire che il Papa presenta adesso al mondo una nuova ‘costituzione universale’, se vogliamo chiamarla così, nel rispetto della propria identità di ogni religione, che rappresenta l’intento di voler costruire un mondo nuovo in pace, in giustizia, in libertà, nel rispetto dei diritti della persona umana, dell'uomo, della donna, della libertà religiosa, perché siamo tutti fratelli. Questa sarà per me, credo, la grande chiave di volta che farà capire che questo viaggio del Papa sia per la chiesa, per i fedeli, per i cattolici, per i cristiani, perché poi in Iraq ci sono la chiesa assira d’Oriente, ci sono anche gli ortodossi, e per i nostri amici musulmani, che sono la maggioranza del Paese In particolare segnalo l’incontro con il Grande Ayatollah Al-Sistani, che è la guida spirituale della religione sciita in Iraq.
Possiamo dire che questo viaggio incarna tutti gli aspetti del documento sulla Fratellanza Universale di Abu Dhabi?
Esattamente. Credo che sia come fare un passo concreto per passare dalle parole ai fatti. Quindi sarebbe come dire che ‘ecco qui possiamo costruire questo mondo migliore, un passo che poi forse potrà essere ancora più realistico se il Papa andrà al più presto, come ha detto, in Libano, un Paese che era stato definito da San Giovanni Paolo come ‘il Paese messaggio’ o da Benedetto XVI ‘Paese laboratorio’, perché è un messaggio di pace, del poter vivere e lavorare insieme pur essendo di religioni diverse, come i musulmani con i cattolici o i cristiani. E poi è un laboratorio, perché tutte queste teorie di poter costruire un mondo nuovo si possono realizzare solo, e questa è la grande differenza, nella vita concreta di ogni giorno. I cristiani, che sono minoranza, vivono insieme ogni giorno a quelli che sono la maggioranza, cioè i musulmani, e devono vivere nel rispetto, nella verità della propria identità, essendo tutti figli e cittadini del Paese nel quale vivono e, non perché siano una minoranza, possono essere meno rispettati o meno benvoluti o con meno possibilità di inserirsi nella vita sociale del Paese.
Eminenza, un suo pensiero proprio alla comunità cristiana irachena che aspetta con trepidazione l'incontro con Papa Francesco?
Credo che voi, cari amici e fratelli cristiani cattolici dell’Iraq, caldei, armeni, latini, dovete prepararvi con grande gioia, perché questo viaggio sarà una specie di patente, che vi darà il Papa, di popolo fedele a Cristo anche nelle più grosse difficoltà e persecuzioni.

Papa Francesco in Iraq: card. Sako (patriarca), “viene per condividere il nostro dolore e risollevare il nostro spirito”

By AgenSIR

20 febbraio 2021 

Un vademecum ‘spirituale’ e pratico per la visita del Papa In Iraq: in una nota pubblicata nella serata di ieri, il Patriarca caldeo di Baghdad, card. Louis Raphael Sako, fornisce una serie di istruzioni per i fedeli perché vivano a pieno l’imminente arrivo del Pontefice (5-8 marzo).

Il Patriarca parla di “visita storica del Papa che viene per tutti gli iracheni. Invito tutti a preservare il carattere pastorale e spirituale della visita, ad ascoltare gli importanti messaggi rivolti da Papa Francesco, e a non fermarvi all’aspetto cerimoniale esterno. Ci sono molte cose che possiamo migliorare quando si ha la buona volontà per farlo”.
“La storia del nostro Paese e della nostra Chiesa – sottolinea Mar Sako – è caratterizzata da un variegato patrimonio di civiltà, cultura e spiritualità, ma è anche segnata da conflitti, dolori, sofferenze e sangue di martiri”. La visita, aggiunge, “è una ulteriore occasione per sottolineare, dopo tanta sofferenza, l’urgenza di dare priorità al bene comune per riformare l’attuale misera situazione, in particolare per affrontare la crisi economica, garantire sicurezza e stabilità affinché ogni iracheno, indipendentemente dalla sua religione, setta o nazionalità, possa sentire che l’Iraq è la sua casa”.
Il cardinale esprime “apprezzamento” per “l’insistenza del Papa di voler stare di persona in mezzo a noi per condividere il nostro dolore e risollevare il nostro spirito con messaggi di fratellanza”.
Da qui la speranza del patriarca Sako che “gli iracheni rispondano tutti all’appello di Papa Francesco, messaggero di pace, per aderire a valori comuni come solidarietà e cooperazione, per proteggere la vita dei cittadini e rispettare i loro diritti e la loro dignità. Alla base la convinzione che gli iracheni, siano essi cristiani, musulmani e di altre religioni e culture, sono fratelli e che Dio è per la vita, la pace, l’amore e la misericordia, non per l’odio, l’ingiustizia, la lotta, la polarizzazione e i conflitti abominevoli”.
Nel testo il cardinale avverte che non tutti i fedeli potranno partecipare agli eventi papali a causa del Covid-19 ma sarà possibile seguire la visita grazie ad Al-Iraqiya TV e Rudaw TV.
Sarà possibile – per chi ne farà richiesta ai rispettivi parroci – salutare il Papa sulla strada dell’aeroporto il 5 marzo pomeriggio, dopo il suo arrivo a Baghdad. Il 6 marzo, in serata, Papa Francesco celebrerà la messa nella cattedrale di San Giuseppe, secondo il rito caldeo, le preghiere saranno recitate in caldeo – siriaco, arabo e italiano. Alla messa non potranno partecipare più di 500 fedeli che dovranno essere muniti di una tessera da mostrare all’ingresso. Il nominativo dovrà essere nell’elenco degli ammessi alla celebrazione. L’ingresso sarà consentito almeno due ore prima dell’orario della messa, per motivi organizzativi e di sicurezza. La messa nello stadio di Erbil (7 marzo) sarà, invece, in rito latino. Restano valide le misure preventive contro la pandemia Corona: indossare la maschera e sterilizzare le mani all’ingresso, sedersi secondo il sistema di distanziamento sociale e non avvicinarsi al Papa quando si entra in chiesa o nello stadio. “Ciò che è importante – conclude il patriarca Sako – è che da questa visita escano rafforzate la speranza e la fiducia. Preghiamo affinché tutto si svolga in sicurezza per il ritorno della pace, della stabilità e della vita normale in Iraq e nella regione”.

Ooberfuse releases new song inspired by Pope's upcoming visit to Iraq

By Indipendent Catholic News

 As part of his visit to Iraq in March 2021, Pope Francis will visit the vacated towns of Mosul and Quaraqosh in Western Iraq, and celebrate Mass in Erbil's 'Franso Hariri' stadium.
His purpose: to give voice to the anxieties of the traumatised and to encourage them to remain in their ancient homelands. To commemorate the occasion and to fortify the hearts of the despairing,
Iraqi priest Father Daniel Alkhory joins forces with London band Ooberfuse to release an Electronic Dance Music song proclaiming the rule of love and the end of hatred.
In 2014, in a bid to build a worldwide caliphate, ISIS chased embedded Western Iraq communities from their ancient homelands. Driven north, large displaced groups set up improvised displacement camps. Their basic needs for shelter, food and water were answered by local and international humanitarian initiatives.
One such initiative was run by Father Daniel Alkhory repurposing his Church and grounds to care for the traumatised fugitives. Father Daniel says: "My name is Father Daniel Alkhory. I am 30 years old. I was a refugee in 2006. I received death threats from terrorist groups in 2006 and was told to leave Baghdad in 24 hours or else I would be killed with my family. That happened on the day of my 16th birthday. After that I discovered the call of God and decided to become a priest, changing my misery into ministry. In 2014 my Church became a shelter for thousands of displaced people fleeing their homes because of ISIS attacks. I work day and night to strengthen the hope in their hearts to stay in Iraq. I met Ooberfuse in 2015 and we became good friends united in our shared desire to nourish hope in the face of despair. Our song Stand Up is an anthem of encouragement and a plea for peace to prevail."
 Cherrie Anderson from Ooberfuse adds: "We met Father Daniel in 2015 in Iraq. We were doing some improvised pop up performances in the displacement camps run by the United Nations and Father Daniel. We would set up our sound system and with Father Daniel bring some respite to the traumatised. I am so happy to work on this song with Fr Daniel to bring encouragement and to make unheard voices more audible."
Hal St John from Ooberfuse said: "There is no looking back to sadder days but only looking forwards to a brighter future. The displaced are largely returned to their homes so we are privileged to be part of Father Daniel's mission to sustain these fragile communities and to build their resilience. We have been working night and day to collaborate and to make our track as celebratory as possible. After a Master Class with Armin Van Buuren and some production excellence from Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios our collaboration Stand Up is released today. Love will rule again to end the hate that has plagued Iraq and the Middle East."
 Ooberfuse is a London based band bringing Eastern influences into conversation with Western pop. They have built an east-to-west reputation for their live performances, with recent tours to Japan, China, Korea, India, Philippines, Italy, Spain and Portugal. UK support has been received from C Radio 1's Huw Stephens, BBC Radio London's Sunny and Shay, and legendary trailblazers such as Boy George, Paul Oakenfold and Sister Bliss (Faithless/Ministry of Sound).

Fr Daniel Alkhory is an Iraqi priest. On his 16th birthday in 2006, he received a death threat from the terrorist groups, and had to leave Baghdad in 24 hours, otherwise he was going to be killed. He currently lives in Iraq and is a strong advocate for the persecuted Iraqis, working day and night to empower the hope in their hearts to stay in Iraq, and be the light and salt of Iraq. This is his first musical project.

Voices of Iraqis awaiting Pope Francis: He comes to say, 'I am with you'

By National Catholic Reporter

Meethak Al-khatib

Christians across Iraq are eagerly anticipating Pope Francis' planned March 5-8 visit to their country, the pontiff's first sojourn abroad since 2019. Although Christians represent a small minority of the Iraqi population, perhaps numbering 1 million out of a total population of 39 million, they trace their lineage to the earliest decades of the faith. Presented here are portions of recent interviews with five Iraqi Christians in Baghdad and Erbil, focusing on their hopes for the papal visit.
The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Nenous Najeeb and Sana Hanna
Nenous Najeeb and Sana Hanna are Syriac Christians. In 2005, two of their children were killed when an unidentified armed group broke into their home in Baghdad's Al'Ma'mun neighborhood. Najeeb and Hanna said their family has faced discrimination because of their Christian faith. Najeeb also lost most of one leg during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
NCR: What does it mean to you that the pope is coming to Iraq?
Najeeb and Hanna: We have been waiting for this visit for a long time. The pope should meet with us and with others who have been discriminated against so he can have an idea of our situation, so he can see what needs we have. I want to tell the pope about everything here. I want to tell him about the harassment, discrimination along with everything we are living with. I wish the pope would talk about discrimination when he meets with Iraqi leaders. It's something important for us. But I believe that Iraqi leaders will tell the pope that things are fine for the Christians here and they are protected by the government.

Dominican Fr. Ramy Simon
Fr. Ramy Simon, 53, is part of a community of Dominican friars in Baghdad.

NCR: What does it mean to you that the pope is coming to Iraq?
Simon: It's a huge and important event because Iraq and the Christians of Iraq have been waiting for this visit for many years. It gives hope for all Iraqis and especially Christians that things will get better in the country, despite the big challenges that we face. As the pope is the head of the Catholic Church, he is keen to plant hope everywhere, and that by itself will bring good to the country.
NCR: Is there anything you hope the pope learns about Iraqis or Iraqi Christians during his visit?
I think the pope already has a lot of information about the Iraqi Christians. The pope knows about their courage, the strength of their faith, and their love for their country. Perhaps the pope can hear from the people about what they are personally suffering from and what the country is going through.
If you could speak to the pope, is there anything special you would want to say to him?
I would express my happiness for meeting him. And if he asks me about our life here and the things we are living through, I would talk to him about the bravery of the church in Iraq. I might also talk to him about our wish for the unification of Christian holidays here, such as Easter. It's something very important for us

Dominican Fr. Majid Kamel Makdisi
Fr. Majid Kamel Makdisi is part of the St. Dominic Monastery in Ankawa (near Erbil).
NCR: What does it mean to you that the pope is coming to Iraq?
 Makdisi: The pope is someone who watches over his flock and has love for them. He has compassion for his wounded people. This love made the pope make the initiative to come here and take the risk. Despite his age and his health condition, he wants to come to check on his people. He comes here to tell us: "I am with you and I am in solidarity with you. I love you despite the pandemic and everything else." With the hard times we are living in now there is a message of solidarity, brotherhood and love. He comes to express this message with his official and personal presence. With this, he tries to be close to everyone. He is the pope of the poor.
Do you have any worries about the pope coming while there is still the threat of the coronavirus?
I do have fears about this. We are worried about the pope's safety as well. But we hope and pray that the visit will pass well. And we have to learn a lesson from this visit that we are wounded and someone is coming to tell us, "I am with you and I love you." And love is important, as it will allow us to have a brighter future.

Shahad Majid
Shahad Majid, 34, lives in Erbil and works as a journalist for the Ankawa radio station.
NCR: What does it mean to you that the pope is coming to Iraq?
Majid: As Christians in Iraq, it's something huge for us that the pope decided to visit here and that Iraq is his first visit since the beginning of the COVID crisis. We think that maybe with this visit, the pope wants to show us that he is thinking of us. I wish for this visit to bring good results not only to Christians, but for other minorities, too. The pope is indeed representing Christians, but he wants to spread the message of peace not only to Christians but to all religions and for all the world. Is there anything you hope the pope learns about Iraqis or Iraqi Christians during his visit?
I wish the pope to see that we as Christians were one of the original people to come here but now, unfortunately, we are being treated as second-class citizens in Iraq. Because of this, many Christians have decided to leave the country. Many Christians who are still here are thinking of leaving Iraq.
Do you have any worries about the pope coming while there is still the threat of the coronavirus?
My worries are more about the security situation more than the health situation in Iraq. There were attacks in Baghdad less than one month ago and we are still not sure who was responsible for them. We are told that suspects were arrested but we do not know the group behind them. My worries for the pope are more about his security more than our health.