The images of the city of Qaraqosh (Iraq), after the passage in these years of Daesh, are horrifying. Houses bombed, destroyed, burned. Christian temples razed to the ground. Its inhabitants fled as best they could, leaving everything behind. Especially to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the surrounding cities. Now, hope begins to return, little by little, to these refugees.
For example, in the great eyes of the little girl Maryam Walled and her family, who, from Kurdistan, prays before the camera with deep evangelical roots: "I pray to God to protect us. I pray for Daesh, that love will reign in their hearts one day. I cry some days, but I am not angry with God. I pray that He will provide for us. I pray that we can go home someday and we can be happy. Pray for me and for family, that there will be peace in my country. I will pray for you, and you will pray for me."
The cases could be multiplied. We will cite just a few: "Before we were displaced, we were a well-to-do family. I was born in this land and have lived here all my life and I never want to leave it. My strong faith in Jesus Christ gives me the strength to continue living here", says Rahel Ishaq Barber, a Christian farmer from Qaraqosh. And Mark Matti Ishaq Zora, a farmer's son, points out: "This is our city, our life, our history. I wish to tell all the families of Bartella to come back here. The Church is helping us. We thank ACN for helping us repair our house. It is really nice to live here again."
Qaraqosh was the largest city in the area known as the Nineveh Plain in Iraq before the arrival of Daesh. Mostly Christian, it was home to 50,000 inhabitants, 30,000 natives and another 20,000 refugees. It was literally destroyed. Today, homes and temples are slowly beginning to be rebuilt, in large part thanks to the campaign Help them come back (www.ayudalesavolver) that ACN has launched.
In Spain, Banco Sabadell's solidarity fund, known as de Ethical and Solidarity Investmenthas particularly valued this ACN reconstruction project, and will announce it in the near future. It is a fund that has granted since 2009 a total of 1.5 million euros in aid to solidarity initiatives, and that in 2018 financially helped thirty-two social projects.
The destruction left by Daesh in this area of Iraq, of course also in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, is considerable: almost 13,000 homes have been damaged, burned or totally destroyed. All were looted. A group of engineers, architects and builders assessed village by village, neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street and house by house the state of destruction. In total, 13,088 houses were affected: 3,557 burned, 1,234 totally destroyed, and 8,297 partially damaged, as well as a total of 363 churches and church properties destroyed in the area.
Coordinated church action
The Nineveh Plain reconstruction project, titled The return of Iraqi Christians to their homesThe action was coordinated by the main local Christian churches, with the collaboration of ACN. After almost three years of jihadist occupation, the priests were the first to go to Nineveh (they were the last to leave), to check the state of everything. The reality was even worse than they had expected: houses burned or collapsed in rubble, altars destroyed, beheaded images, desecrated tombs....
Now, thousands of families want to return. And with them, the Church, the priests, the nuns... They have to start from scratch, but they are not afraid but hopeful that everything will return to the way it was before. They want to stop being refugees and regain their lives, their jobs, their homes, their dignity.
In response to this desire, the three major Christian Churches in Iraq, Syro-Catholic, Chaldean and Syro-Orthodox, signed a historic agreement and created a committee to begin work on the great project of rebuilding the populations of Nineveh for the return of the Christians.
The founding members of this committee are Timothaeus Moussa Al Shamany, Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch; Yohanna Petros Mouche, Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul; Andrzej Halemba, head of the Middle East section of Aid to the Church in Need; Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf, Syriac Orthodox metropolitan of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan; and Mikha Pola Maqdassi, Chaldean Catholic bishop of Alqosh.
Neither the political instability of the country and the area, nor the fear of terrorists, which still persists, nor the lack of resources, can overcome the firm desire of the Christians to return to their homes, ACN executives point out. There are more than 12,000 families, around 95,000 people. "Everyone wants to repair their homes and get on with their lives, start from scratch but with faith, with great faith."says Chaldean priest Salar Kajo. He adds: "The question is not to help or not to help, it is to exist or not to exist, and you Christians in the West are helping us to be here, for if we do not return to these villages we will not there will be more Christians in Iraq."
Reconstruction and challenges
Other challenges make this situation more complex: the concern about security in the villages; the numerous damages to infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, school and clinics); and very importantly, how to deal with the transition period between the end of the monthly rental assistance and food packages, at this moment only provided by the Churches, and the beginning of a new life in the Nineveh Plain.
The Nineveh reconstruction project, which has also been referred to as the "Marshall Plan." seeks not only to rebuild the housing and church buildings, but also to facilitate employment and services related to the entire project.
"Recognizing the universal human right of return of displaced persons to their places of origin", According to the three Christian Churches in the Nineveh Plain, with the collaboration of ACN, the Reconstruction Committee has set the following objectives: "(1) To direct and raise funds for the reconstruction of Christian villages in the Nineveh Plain and the return of Christians to those villages. Renovation of private homes alone has been estimated at about $250 million. 2) Plan and monitor reconstruction and report on the use of funds received. 3) To inform the public about the progress of the return of Christians. 4) Invite governments and other organizations to lobby and act within the international community to ensure that Iraqi Christians can return to their homes".
Background
Following the invasion of Mosul by Daesh in June 2014, Christians and other minorities fled with the clothes on their backs seeking refuge, first in the city of Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq, and when it fell to Daesh in August of the same year, they were forced to flee to Erbil and other safer cities such as Alqosh, Dohuk, Zakho and Sulaymaniyah.
These waves of displaced Christians and other minority groups, such as the Yazidis, increased the number of those under the direct care of the churches in these regions to approximately 120,000 people in a few days.
The Catholic Church in Kurdistan had to take care of these more than 12,000 families by providing shelter, food, education and health care. And it put itself at the service of thousands of people, victims of spiritual suffering and perennial fear in their lives, as a result of what they have experienced. There are many people who have lost family members to Daesh or who face total poverty, having had to flee with the clothes on their backs.
Coordinated by the Archdiocese of Erbil, nearly 50 % of the funds raised (approximately about $35 million between 2014 and 2017) for the support of displaced Christians have been and continue to be donated by benefactors of ACN, which has been with the Christian refugees in Iraq from the beginning. Of that $35 million, $7 million was for shelter and $11 million for food and basic necessities.
In 2014, as a result of the crisis that led to the exodus of 120,000 Christians, the foundation dedicated a total of 4.6 million euros in aid. In 2015, the figure rose to €10.6 million; in 2016, it was more than €9.7 million, and in 1017 it far exceeded €9 million. While carrying out the Nineveh reconstruction project, ACN continues to provide food and medicine packages to the refugees still remaining in Iraqi Kurdistan. "We will be with them until the end." they say.
Support from the Pope and Cardinal Parolin
It is the express wish of Pope Francis that we continue to support this persecuted Christian population, ACN notes. On the other hand, the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, thanked already in 2017. "the support that, in the three years since the invasion of the self-styled Islamic State, the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need has offered to the many Christian families so that they were able to endure this situation with dignity.". He also stressed that "much has been done, but much remains to be done".and asked for support for the foundation's reconstruction project, Help them come back.
Last Christmas, Cardinal Parolin presided at Christmas Eve Mass in the Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph in Baghdad and concelebrated with Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, in a Eucharist attended by the country's president, Barham Salih.
In a Christmas message for Iraq delivered to Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Cardinal Parolin referred to the country as a "country of great importance". "cradle of civilizations, so rich in biblical references and history, the land of the patriarch Abraham, where the history of salvation began." The Cardinal Secretary of State convened Christians and Muslims to "illuminate the darkness of fear and meaninglessness, of irresponsibility and hatred with words and acts of light, sowing with all their hands seeds of peace, truth, justice, freedom and love." and stressed that "how much we have in common and how much we are tied to each other is greater than what separates us."
At the celebration with the Chaldean community, the largest Christian community in the country, he pointed out that Christmas Eve is a night of "insomnia" like so many whose worries keep them awake at night - like so many Iraqi families who have been "have gone through the ordeal of suffering."- and, for the cardinal, Christmas is a time when "It is precisely in this humanly hopeless situation that the happy announcement resounds".
On the last day of his visit to Iraq as envoy of Pope Francis, Cardinal Parolin assured that "forgiveness is the basis for reconciliation". and thanked the Iraqis for their witness to the Christian faith. May "the pain and violence suffered should never be transformed into rancor". he asked during the Mass celebrated in the Syro-Catholic cathedral of Qaraqosh.
Return of more than six thousand families
The Apostolic Nuncio to Jordan and Iraq, Bishop Alberto Ortega, recalled the importance of Christians in the area: "I call for efforts to protect religious minorities and promote development aid while promoting peace. This would go to the root of the problem to avoid the drama of emigration."
Subsequently, Bishop Ortega stated that "Thanks to ACN and other organizations, the Christians of Iraq have been able to survive in very difficult times, when they were expelled from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, and many of them took refuge in Kurdistan". He also announced that "In Qaraqosh, an important city of the Christian presence in Iraq, more than six thousand families have already returned, and this is a great hope for everyone".
Fundraising campaign
The experts' cost estimate for reconstruction has been set, as noted, at more than $250 million. The committee is also coordinating with local architects, engineers and construction firms to monitor the progress of the work, ensure its completion and provide the respective reports to the funding sources.
As a sign of hope for Iraqi Christians, ACN has already launched an international fundraising campaign for the immediate rebuilding of homes and for the restoration and reconstruction of churches and church properties including convents and catechetical centers.
However, ACN reports that it can only bear a fraction of the costs required for reconstruction. For this reason, it calls on governments, church organizations and other charitable institutions to "to join us in helping the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee and, through them, the Christians of Iraq."
International Victims' Day
Sensitivity to the persecution and humanitarian tragedies that Pope Francis has denounced so much is beginning to surface. On August 22, the UN celebrated for the first time the International Day in Commemoration of the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. ACN, which has been working for 70 years on behalf of Christians who suffer persecution for their faith, has welcomed this initiative. "It is an important step towards making the voice of persecuted Christians more heard in the future."Thomas Heine-Geldern, ACN's international CEO, says. "We are very satisfied. We've been looking forward to it for a long time."
Earlier, in May, the United Nations General Assembly had adopted the corresponding resolution, at the proposal of Poland and with the support of the United States, Canada, Brazil, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Nigeria and Pakistan. One of the prime movers was the lawyer and writer Ewelina Ochab, a specialist in the situation of religious minorities in the Middle East. Ochab acknowledged that "it was a long process with many participants, but ACN has been one of my inspirations."
According to the report Religious freedom in the world, edited by ACN, 61 % of the world's population lives in countries where there is no religious freedom, discrimination and persecution on the basis of religion. Ewelina Ochab affirms that the recognition of this international day is aimed at "to remember the victims and survivors of religious persecution. Having a marked date is important so that we do not forget our commitments, but it is not a goal in itself, but the beginning of a long campaign to prevent more victims in the future".
Blessed rosaries for Syria
The Pope's concern for the entire Middle East is at its highest level. On August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Francis blessed 6,000 rosaries for Syria during the Angelus prayer. These will be given to people whose relatives have been kidnapped or killed during the Syrian war, as part of ACN's ecumenical initiative together with the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in the country. "These rosaries, made at the initiative of ACN, will be for our brothers and sisters in Syria a sign of my closeness." Pope Francis said. "Let us continue to pray the Rosary for peace in the Middle East and throughout the world."
The rosaries will be distributed in several Syrian parishes on September 15, the day of the commemoration of Our Lady of Sorrows. The ecumenical initiative, in which ACN is participating, has as its motto. Comfort my people and is dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Syrian war and providing spiritual support to the families of the deceased. n
