I vescovi Caldei: “Due popoli due Stati: la soluzione per la pace in Terra Santa”
(Agenzia Fides).
Due popoli, due Stati. I vescovi Caldei, riuniti a Baghdad per l’annuale Sinodo della Chiesa caldea, guardano con preoccupazione ai tanti conflitti che lacerano il Medio Oriente, puntando lo sguardo soprattutto sulla situazione in Terra Santa
10 years after ISIS invasion, Christians in Iraq given ‘sign of hope’
(Charles Collins. Crux).
As Iraq’s Nineveh Plains marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), the Christian community continues to live with the trauma of the tragic event. Yet despite the efforts of the Islamist group to eradicate the Christian population, they are slowly rebuilding their presence in the area. “Words cannot describe what we experienced 10 years ago, ISIS tried to eradicate us, but they failed”, said Syriac Catholic Archbishop Nizar Semaan of Adiabene in Northern Iraq. “The people here are like olive trees. You can cut them, burn them, but after 10 or 20 years they will continue to give fruit. They tried everything, but we remain, and as a Church we do everything to give a sign of hope,” he said during an online conference organized by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Church is ‘still alive’ in Iraq, say archbishops
(UCA News. Gina Christian).
“We are like an olive tree; no matter what happens to us, they can cut everything, but in the end, we are here, we stay here … and as a church, we do everything to give a sign of hope, to help the (Iraqi Christian) people stay here in this land,” said Archbishop Nizar Semaan of the Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Hadiab-Erbil.
(The Irisch Catholic).
Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that about 9,000 Christian families have returned to their homes on the Nineveh Plains after fleeing a decade ago, when ISIS took the region.
In June of 2014, the Islamist extremist group captured Mosul and the villages to the north and east of the city, prompting a mass exodus of Christians and Yazidis, among others. The occupation of Mosul left other Christians on the Nineveh Plains vulnerable, and indeed, on August 6, 2014, prompted by further ISIS aggression, the entire Christian population fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.
(Catholic Herald. Crux Staff).
Thousands of Christians have returned to their homes in the historic Christian heartland of Iraq and are rebuilding their lives, including once again living out the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, after fleeing a decade ago from the ISIS takeover.
(Agenzia Fides. Gianni Valente).
Mosul, 10 anni dopo. Era il 10 giugno del 2014 quando i miliziani jihadisti dello Stato Islamico riuscirono a fra sventolare le loro bandiere nere su tutta la seconda città irachena, mentre le truppe governative si ritiravano dalla metropoli.
Prima dell’arrivo dei jihadisti, a Mosul vivevano almeno 1200 famiglie cristiane.
Mosul è stata sottratta allo Stato Islamico dal 2017. Da allora, i cristiani fuggiti che hanno fatto stabile ritorno alle loro case sono pochissimi. “Sono circa 30-40 famiglie, spesso non complete. Molti sono anziani. Diverse famiglie vanno e vengono da altri posti, non rappresentano una presenza stabile e che si riesce a notare” conferma all’Agenzia Fides Paolo Thabit Mekko, Vescovo caldeo di Alqosh.
I giorni della conquista jihadista di Mosul vengono ricordati come l’inizio di un tempo pieno di traumi e dolore, che sembra aver mutato profondamente il profilo di una città un tempo descritta come luogo di convivenza tra diverse comunità di fede, compresa quella che viene riconosciuta come una delle più antiche comunità cristiane del mondo
(ACIMENA. Georgina Behnam Hababa).
The donation of two wealthy Frenchmen from their inheritance to rebuild the Umm al-Ma’una Church and its school in Mosul, Iraq , which was destroyed at the hands of the terrorist organization ISIS, received prominent appreciation and appreciation. The issue prompted many questions about the sources of funding for the reconstruction of churches destroyed by the terrorist organization in Mosul and its environs, and whether the Iraqi state also bears responsibility for financing this reconstruction.
In this regard, Bishop Mikhail Najib, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, praised the donors’ initiative and the cooperation of the “Save the Christians of the East” organization, and thanked all the supporting and assisting institutions, in a special interview with “Asi Mina” .
(ACIMENA. Georgina Behnam Hababa).
Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, called on the Iraqi state to issue a unified civil law for personal status to address religious, sectarian and cultural pluralism. He considered that his proposal would remove the country from its sectarian divisions and enhance the national and humanitarian sense and the values of coexistence.
In his speech at a conference on “Personal Status Law for Christians in Iraq,” Sako promised yesterday at the Catholic University in Erbil, Iraq, that legislating a new law specifically for Christians’ personal status is necessary. He saw this as a guarantee of their rights and stability for their families, in the absence of a unified civil law.
(AciMena. Georgina Behnam Hababa).
The Iraqi Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Bishop Michael Najib, confirmed that the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul deserves the title of the Church of the Martyrs.
Naguib explained in an exclusive interview with “Asi Mina” , after he chaired yesterday, Sunday, the celebration of the first Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit, which has been closed for nearly two decades, on the occasion of Pentecost, that the hand of terrorism assassinated Father Ragheed Kani and his companions here , after he celebrated Mass on the same occasion in 2007.
(Asia News).
Le notizie di oggi: le autorità dello Xinjiang bloccano l’ordine di demolizione della città vecchia di Kashgar, cuore della cultura uigura. In Bangladesh riaprono le scuola nonostante l’ondata eccezionale di calore. Si dimette il ministro thai degli Esteri, a rischio i negoziati col Myanmar. India e Oman puntano a rafforzare gli accordi commerciali.
(ZENIT – Español.Asia News).
En la misa de inauguración de la iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro, en el barrio de al-Dawasa, el cardenal Sako afirmó que la inauguración de la iglesia destruida por el ISIS es un signo de esperanza. El lugar de culto fue conquistado y devastado por los yihadistas y luego convertido en cuartel policial del Estado Islámico. La alegría de los más de 300 cristianos que participaron en la celebración.
(ALI JABAR. NCRonline).
Nearly 30 years ago, a revered professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School named Richard B. Hays published The Moral Vision of the New Testament , a sweeping 508-page meditation on Christian ethics in which Hays concluded that the Christian Bible condemns homosexual acts. Hays called homosexuality “one among many tragic signs that we are a broken people” and said churches should not sanction or bless homosexual unions.
(Shafaq News).
Chaldean Church leader in Iraq and worldwide Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako stated, on Friday, that he endured nine months of “suffering, pain, and anxiety,” during the period he left the archdiocese in Baghdad.
Sako, speaking at a press conference in Baghdad today, said, “I spent nine months outside Baghdad and the archdiocese,” adding, “Nine months of suffering, somewhat resembling the condition of a pregnant woman enduring in hopes of having a child.”