News from Iraq shocked the world in the summer of 2014 and the night of August 6 became a living hell for many. ISIS terrorists overran the Nineveh Plains, forcing the population to abide by Islamic law. More than 120,000 Christians had to flee as they did not want to renounce their faith.
From the balcony of the apostolic palace, Pope Francis expressed his concern.
POPE FRANCIS
The news from Iraq leaves us in disbelief and dismay: thousands of people, including many Christians, brutally driven from their homes; children dying of thirst and hunger as they flee; women kidnapped; people massacred; violence of all kinds.
His words were accompanied with action. The Pope appointed Cardinal Fernando Filoni as his special envoy, who understood the area from his experience as nuncio when the Iraq war broke out in 2003. Eleven years later, he returned to be close to persecuted Christians.
CARD. FERNANDO FILONI
Grand Master, Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
It is essentially a mission of encouragement, as well as of trust, of spiritual, moral and psychological support. Our perception is that these Christians, after suffering so many difficulties, may not think that this country is theirs anymore.
In 2021, Pope Francis visited the city that was destroyed by ISIS. There, he prayed for the victims while surrounded by the ruins of what was once the cradle of civilization.
What happened in Iraq was genocide. This was officially recognized by the European Parliament in 2016, denouncing the atrocities that the terrorists carried out against religious minorities.
Nearly 10,000 people were murderd or kidnapped by ISIS. And their stories live on, especially by those who survived. Pascale Warda is a former minister of Iraq and spent months listening to testimonies of the torture women suffered.
PASCALE WARDA
Former Iraqi Minister
Many girls and women who were with them and they were most tortured and all things we thought we heard about Yazidis, they did to Yazidis, they did to Christians. Just Christians were less than Yazidis.
Ten years later, Christians are returning to their former home. Aid to the Church in Need has helped 9,000 families return to Iraq, although thousands of people are still missing and the pain from the genocide remains.
CA
TR: AT
