Islamic State that ruled Mosul from 2014 to 2016, damaged or destroyed every church in the city including the 19th century built "Our Lady of the Hour" Church, popularly called Al Saa'a Church.

Currently, the church is being rebuilt through a partnership between UNESCO, the United Arab Emirates, and the Dominican order.

Established in the 19th century, the Our Lady of the Hour Church was the base for the Catholic parish in northern Iraq and Kurdistan. Read more

The prelate says even though Mosul has been destroyed, for Syriac-Catholic Christians in Iraq its "liberation is ... a cause for great joy because the bulk my diocese is comprised by Mosul and Qaraqosh and environs."

Mouche says people can return to the surrounding Nineveh Plains, although the damage to Mosul means it will be uninhabitable for the immediate future.

"A good number of families have already arrived [on the Plains]. Some have found work or started restaurants, shops and businesses. It takes a lot of courage to start from scratch again," he says.

The challenges Christians returning to their homes on the Nineveh Plains face involve:

• rebuilding or repairing about 13,000 houses
• settling security concerns in the villages
• a Kurdish-Iraqi independence election scheduled for 25 September 2017
• massive infrastructure concerns (water, electricity, roads, schools and clinics)
• internally displaced people in Erbil continuing to need food aid and help paying the rent until they return to their homes on the Nineveh Plains.

Of the 600 or so families that have resettled on the Nineveh Plains, some say they may move back into Mosul once the city is cleared of the devastation that began when ISIS took over the city in 2014.

While changing attitudes is difficult, Mouche says all people must understand war is not a solution and they must learn to live in peace together.

"We are all sick of war. Wars have been fought in Iraq off and on since 1958. We have to learn how to live in peace," he says.

Source

• Zenit
• Catholic Culture
• Image:Al Jazeera
  

The military offensive to root out ISIS militants from Mosul and surrounding villages will be a "huge challenge", the United Nations (UN) has said.

The UN said it expects about 1.5 million people to flee the warfare in a short amount of time.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and other humanitarian agencies - including Caritas and other Catholic groups - in Iraq are scurrying to ready preparations.

It as it is believed the US-led assault could be pushed forward as early as September. But aid groups fear they may be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers involved.

The UN that as the Mosul crisis evolves, up to 13 million people throughout Iraq may need humanitarian aid by the year's end - far larger than the Syrian crisis.

This would make the humanitarian operation in Mosul likely the single largest, most complex in the world in 2016.

Bruno Geddo, UNHCR chief for Iraq, told the US Catholic News Service that the United Nations has issued an appeal for the $284 million needed in part for the "preparation of camps ahead of the humanitarian emergency from Mosul".

He said a cluster of camps needs to be built in six locations in disputed territory.

"Not only do you have to make sure that the location is not in the direct range in the line of fire," he said, "but the terrain must be fit to build a camp."

He said safety and security screenings were top priorities as Sunni Muslims flood out of Mosul, controlled by ISIS for the past two years.

Iraqi authorities will be charged with conducting the security screenings to identify ISIS collaborators.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• AMN
• Image: Pixabay

"Today the story of Christianity is finished in Iraq," the priest who identified himself as Fr Nawar told the Catholic News Agency on August 8.

He is currently studying in Rome.

His home city of Qaraqosh (Bakhdida) near Mosul fell to ISIS forces last week and more than 100,000 Christians fled, with many taking nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"There are so many families who can't eat, they can't get bread," Fr Nawar lamented.

The Obama administration has authorised "targeted airstrikes" to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and defend US military advisors in Iraq.

It is also airdropping humanitarian aid to a Yazidi group trapped in the mountains of Sinjar without access to food or water.

Pope Francis has announced the appointment of Cardinal Fernando Filoni as his personal envoy to Iraq.

Continue reading

The international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need and Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Rafael Sako of Iraq appealed to all people of good will to join in.

A statement from Aid to the Church in Need described the Transfiguration as holding out a "sign of hope for humanity".

"It is a source of courage when obstacles appear impossible to surmount; a sign that light is stronger than darkness; and testimony that death can turn into life."

The statement continued that the global day of prayer for peace is meant to be observed in churches and homes across the US.

"The Global Day of Prayer in the midst of so much suffering in Iraq—particularly for the ancient Christian community of Mosul—tells the world at large that US Christians have not forgotten and abandoned their suffering brothers and sisters," the statement added.

Meanwhile, a resolution has been introduced into the United States Congress aimed at protecting persecuted Christians and other minorities in Iraq.

ISIS militants took control of Mosul in June, and later issued an ultimatum to Christians in the city insisting they convert to Islam, pay a tax, or be killed.

Thousands of Christians and other religious minorities fled the city, seeking refuge in villages in the Ninevah Plains and Kurdestan.

"We are witnessing an ongoing crime against humanity," Congressman Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska said in introducing the resolution.

Currently, the bi-partisan resolution has more than 50 co-sponsors.

If passed, the resolution would call on Congress, the US president and secretary of state, and the UN Security Council, to consider "an urgent international humanitarian intervention to speed assistance to communities facing ferocious ethnic and religious cleansing," Fortenberry explained.

The US Catholic bishops have urged their government to assist Iraqi Christian victims of persecution from ISIS miliants, while France has offered asylum to Iraqi Christians who have fled Mosul.

Sources

• Aid to the Church in Need
• Catholic News Agency
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Terrasanta

ISIS militants ordered everyone out of the mosque of the Prophet Younis (Jonah) in Mosul in Iraq on July 24, before blowing it up.

The mosque was built on an archaeological site dating back to the eighth century BC and is said to be the burial place of the prophet, who in stories from both the Bible and Qur'an is swallowed by a sea creature.

It was a popular destination for religious pilgrims from around the world.

The militants claimed the mosque had become a place for apostasy, not prayer.

Continue reading

Francis Campbell, who served in Rome from 2005 to 2011, said he was deeply disturbed by the West's indifference to the events in Mosul.

The extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) gave Mosul Christians an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay an exorbitant tax or die, by noon, July 19.

"It's reminiscent of what we saw in Europe in the build-up to the Second World War or the ethnic cleansing witnessed [in] the Balkans in the early 1990s, where there is an attempt to systematically wipe out an entire civilisation and culture," Mr Campbell said.

ISIS members marked the homes of Christian families throughout Mosul with the Arabic letter "N", standing for "Nazarene".

The Sunni militants burned an 1800-year-old church to the ground and ordered church bells to be silent.

Last Sunday, Mass was not celebrated in the city for the first time in 1600 years, as an estimated 10,000 Christians left Mosul.

Mr Campbell noted that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had said the purge of Christians in Mosul was "likely a crime against humanity".

The US State Department and the UN Security Council have also denounced the ISIS actions.

But days after the ultimatum deadline had passed, neither the British Prime Minister nor the European Union had spoken out, Mr Campbell said.

Pope Francis has expressed his deep concern over these events and has assured all Christians of the Middle East of his "constant prayers".

Patriarch Louis Sako, the Chaldean Archbishop of Baghdad, said any dialogue with the extremists seemed impossible.

The militants are like "a wall" as they only repeat: "Between us there is nothing but a sword", the patriarch said.

Patriarch Sako said that as late as the end of June, 35,000 Christians had lived in Mosul, and more than 60,000 lived there before the US-led invasion in 2003.

"Iraq is heading towards a humanitarian, cultural and historical disaster," he said in an open letter to Iraqis and the world last week.

ISIS seeks to create an Islamic caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria.

The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation has condemned their actions in Mosul.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• National Catholic Reporter
• Voice of America
• Image: KR Magazine