From the Dominican Sisters in Iraq

[Dawn Marie]

From the Dominican Sisters in Iraq

Dear Sisters, Brothers, and Friends,

Thank you for journeying with us through prayers and support in the past few months. It really is a time of peril and we are hoping that a miracle from God will end all that.

So far, 510 families have been displaced from Mosul. Some were fortunate to leave before the deadline ISIS set as they were able to take their belongings with them. However, 160 families of them left Mosul with only their clothes on; everything they had was taken away from them.

These families are in so much need of help and support. People in Christian towns that received these refugees opened their homes to provide shelters and food for them, as much as they could. People are strongly willing to help, but the fact that they did not have their salaries for two months (June- July) makes it extremely difficult for them to offer more. As the salaries of government employees in areas under ISIS control are being suspended. Additionally, because of the present situation in Mosul and the whole province (of Nineveh) the economy of the state is suffering, which naturally affects everyone. Since the tension started in Mosul, many people lost their jobs as 99% of jobs stopped, which means there is hardly any money to be used let alone loaning to those who are in need. This is not only in the province of Nineveh, but also in Erbil. Moreover, all Christians in the plain of Nineveh have not received their food supplement, which the government used to provide via the smart ration card. This is causing a crisis not only for the refugees, but also for the residents in the area.

However, the church is calling people to open their homes for refugees as there are some families staying in Church’s halls with limited space and public services in Nineveh plain. But in Karakosh, residents and churches are collaborating. Residents are welcoming refugees in their homes and churches are providing for them; therefore, refugees prefer to come to Karakosh. Additionally, the church, with the help of Christian endowment, is planning to provide caravans as kind of accommodations for the time being. This project, however, seems to take longer time than expected.

As you perhaps know, concerning the situation in Mosul, the Islamic State has a policy in governing the city. After displacing the Christians, they started their policy concerning the holy places that angered people. So far, the churches are under their control; crosses have been taken off. But we are not sure about the extent of the damaged done in them. In addition to that, few mosques have been affected, too. The ISIS destroyed two mosques with their shrines last week: the mosque of Prophet Sheeth (Seth) and the mosque of the Prophet Younis, or Jonah, said to be the burial place of Jonah. The militants claim that such mosques have become places for apostasy, not prayer. This was really too painful for all people as Jonah’s shrine was considered as a monument. Also, it was a historical place as it was built on an old church. Destroying such places is a destruction of our heritage and legacy.

Besides, ISIS is setting some rules that even Mosul residents cannot tolerate. Like forcing young people to join them, preventing women to go out, and enforcing the strict interpretation of Islamic law.

People in towns around Mosul are afraid that ISIS would extend their control after the Muslim Feast holidays. This period of Muslim feast was a kind of intermission, but no one knows what to expect next. In fact, they have already started. The ISIS are extending their controlled zone. Yesterday (Aug 3) there were encounters between ISIS and Pashmerga outside of Mosul to the north. Meanwhile, the central government is attacking the ISIS in Mosul. Most of Christians in towns of Batnaya and Telkaif have left their homes because they are very close to Mosul. The situation in Karkush in the present time is calm. But this causes fear and horror among Christians and that’s why some families from Karkush are leaving to Kurdistan, some have plans to leave the country, and some are staying. This in any case weakens Christians feeling of belonging to the country.

We are surprised that some countries of the world are silent about what is happening. We hoped that there would be stronger international approach toward Iraq, and Christians in Iraq in general.

As for us as a community, our sisters in Batnaya and Telkaif had to leave the town with 99% of people who left because of violence outside the town.

We have had our annual retreat on the 20th of July. That gave us opportunity to pray for Iraq and our Christian community during this time of peril.

Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena –Iraq.

August 4th 2014

[Dawn Marie]

[Dawn Marie]

[Gloria]

Forced to flee: Iraqi Catholics

August 06, 2014

A commentary about the Islamic persecution of Chaldean Catholics in Iraq and some historical background on Christianity's heritage in Muslim-dominated regions.'

[Dawn Marie]

BREAKING:
URGENT STATEMENT OF THE CHALDEAN PATRIARCH
On Alarming Situation of 130,000 Refugees and Other Grave Matters

Rorate was sent a Declaration by the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Louis-Raphael I Sako, on several urgent aspects and the grave risk in which Iraqi Christians and other refugees still find themselves.

THE ALARMING SITUATION OF THE REFUGEES

WARNING OF A DISASTER YET MORE DREADFUL

+Louis Raphael Sako

Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon

President of the Assembly of the Catholic Bishops in Iraq

Baghdad – Iraq

 

10 August  2014

 

 

Death and sickness are taking hold of the children and elderly people among the thousands of refugee families spread over the Kurdistan Region who lost everything in the recent tragic developments while the ISIS Militants are still advancing and the humanitarian aid is insufficient.

 

There are seventy thousand displaced Christians in Ankawa [Erbil] along with the other minorities in this city that has a population of more than twenty-five thousand Christians. The families who found shelter inside the churches or schools are in a rather good condition while those who are still sleeping in the streets and public parks are in a deplorable situation…

 

In Dohuk, the number of Christian refugees' amount to more than 60.000 and their situation is worse than those in Erbil. There are also families who found shelters in Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah, as well as some have arrived as far as in the capital city of Baghdad.

 

While the humanitarian needs are escalating: housing, food, water, medicine and funds, the lack of international coordination is slowing and limiting the realization of an effective assistance to these thousands awaiting immediate support. The Churches are offering everything within their capacity.

 

To summarize the situation of the Christian villages around Mosul up to the borders of Kurdistan Region: the churches are deserted and desecrated; five bishops are out of their bishoprics, the priests and nuns left their missions and institutions leaving everything behind, the families have fled with their children abandoning everything else! The level of disaster is extreme.

 

The position of the American president Obama only to give military assistance to protect Erbil is disappointing. The talks about dividing Iraq are threatening. The Americans are not up to a rapid solution to give hope specifically as they are not going to attack the ISIS in Mosul and in the Nineveh Plain. The confirmation that this terrible situation will continue until the Iraqi Security Forces will fight along with Peshmerga against the ISIS militants is very depressing. The President of the Kurdistan Region said that the Kurdish troops are fighting with a terrorist State and not minor groups! While the country is under fire, the politicians in Baghdad are fighting for power.

 

At the end, perhaps, Mosul will not be liberated neither the villages in the Nineveh Plain. There is no strategy to dry up the sources of manpower and the resources of these Islamic terrorists. They control the oil town of Zumar and the oil fields of Ain Zalah and Batma along with the oil fields of Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor in Syria. The Islamic extremist fighters are joining them from different countries around the world.

 

The choices of refugee families:

 

Migration: where and do they have the necessary documents and money?

 

To stay: in the halls and in the refugee camps, waiting the summer to end and winter to come? Will the schools be reopened and will their children go to elementary schools, high schools or colleges? Will they be welcomed in the schools in Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah? What is the future of the properties and belongings, along with the jobs, of these thousands of innocent people forced to fee overnight from their dear villages?

 

These are questions that should inflict pain in the conscience of every person and organization so that something should be done to save this people that have their history in this land from their beginnings.

 

[Dawn Marie]

“Adopt a Christian from Mosul,” the facts and respond with life eme... by Catholic4Life

AsiaNews launches a fundraiser to support the faithful in the crosshairs of the Islamic State, after the demands of the Patriarch of Baghdad and the urgent appeal of Pope Francis "to ensure the necessary aid, especially those most urgent, so many displaced people, whose fate depends on the solidarity of others." More than 100 thousand people have been forced to flee their homes with nothing on, and now they have to live on. To help them, only 5 euro per day: the funds raised will be sent to the Patriarchate of Baghdad, who will distribute them according to the needs of each family.

Rome (AsiaNews) - A "humanitarian catastrophe, which threatens to become a real genocide" is how Louis Sako, Patriarch of Baghdad, describes to AsiaNews the flight of Christians from Mosul and Qaraqosh, in the plain of Nineveh: over 100 thousand people forced Army of the Islamic caliphate to leave their homes and their belongings, fleeing to the Kurdistan under the threat of death. "An exodus, a real Way of the Cross, with the Christians were forced to march on foot in the hot Iraqi summer .... Among them there are the sick, the elderly, children and pregnant women. They need food, water and shelter ... ".

The thousands of Christian families have had to flee under threat of being killed if they did not convert to Islam, or if they did not accept to pay the jiziya, the charge of "protected" under strict Sharia law. In flight they were forced to leave everything in the hands of their captors.

Faced with this tragedy, Pope Francis continues to send messages of solidarity and appeals to the international community to act to stop the violence and abuses against the local community. Yesterday, the pope addressed "his urgent appeal to the international community, so that, taking steps to end the humanitarian tragedy taking place, we will work to protect those who are affected or threatened by violence and to ensure the necessary aid, especially those most urgent, so many displaced people, whose fate depends on the solidarity of others. "

AsiaNews has decided to respond to this call with a collection of funds for these brothers and sisters robbed of the right to life and liberty. To feed a Christian from Mosul to 160 euro a month are needed; for a week are enough 40; for one day, only 5 euro. We invite all our readers and friends to contribute, to go beyond the indignation and condemnation, expressing our solidarity with the support of Iraqi Christians. The funds raised will be sent to the Patriarchate of Baghdad, who will distribute them according to the needs of each family.

For the Patriarch of Baghdad, to help Christians in this emergency, leaving them in Iraq, it is more important that they fled abroad. Iraq and the Middle East need the witness of Christians.

Donations can be sent in different ways. Everyone should have the reason "AsiaNews- Adopt a Christian from Mosul":

- Via Credit Card with Paypal

- Credit Card Via the website (see. feature: "Your contributo- Dona")

- Via Postal Code n. 45443009
payable to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, causal "AsiaNews - Adopt a Christian from Mosul" - Via Bank Transfer to AsiaNews - C / C 6152510434/77at Banca Intesa - Branch 499 Via G. Carini 32 / D - 00152 Roma RM Coord Banking : Z 03069 05078 615251043477 Coord. Iban: IT35 Z030 6905 0786 1525 1043 477 Swift Code: BCI TIT MM causal "AsiaNews - Adopt a Christian from Mosul"

- Via cashier's check non-transferable, addressed to
AsiaNews c / o PIME
Via Guerazzi 11
00152 Rome RM
Italy

http://www.asianews.it/notizie-it/Adotta-un-cristiano-di-Mosul,-ris...

[Dawn Marie]

Saw this article....worthy to re-post here.

Sound familiar?

Speaking in French, Pope Urban began by graphically detailing the torture, rape, and murder of Christian pilgrims and the defilement of churches and holy places committed by the Turks (he called them Persians) : “They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either pour on the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a base death, they perforate their navels, and dragging forth the extremity of the intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the victim around until the viscera having gushed forth the victim falls prostrate on the ground…What shall I say about the abominable rape of women? To speak of it is worse than to be silent. On whom therefore is the labor of avenging these wrongs and recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you?”

ON NOVEMBER 27, 1095, Pope Urban II mounted a platform set up in a meadow outside the French city of Clermont, surrounded in al directions by an immense crowd. A vigorous man of fifty-three, Urban was blessed with an unusual y powerful and expressive voice that made it possible for him to be heard at a great distance. On this memorable occasion, addressing a multitude that included poor peasants as wel as nobility and clergy, the pope gave a speech that changed history.
Urban had arranged the gathering in response to a letter from Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Byzantium, who had written from his embattled capital of Constantinople to the Count of Flanders requesting that he and his fel ow Christians send forces to help the Byzantines repel the Seljuk Turks, recent converts to Islam who had invaded the Middle East, captured Jerusalem, and driven to within one hundred miles of Constantinople. In his letter, the emperor detailed gruesome tortures of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land and vile desecration of churches, altars, and baptismal fonts.

Should Constantinople fal to the Turks, not only would thousands more Christians be murdered, tortured, and raped, but also “the most holy relics of the Savior,” gathered over the centuries, would be lost. “Therefore in the name of God…we implore you to bring this city al the faithful soldiers of Christ…[I]n your coming you will find your reward in heaven, and if you do not come, God wil condemn you.”