Latest news with #IraqiChristians
Herald Malaysia
11-07-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Catholic University in Erbil looks ahead to 10-year anniversary
The Catholic University in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, was founded to provide an education to minority groups fleeing ISIS. Now, it aims to promote peace by teaching about Mesopotamia's religious history. Jul 11, 2025 Students at the Catholic University in Erbil By Joseph TullochChristians in Iraq want to be 'not just a statistic', but 'a light in society'. That's how Fr Karam Shamasha describes the inspiration behind the founding of the Catholic University in Erbil. With the university's ten-year anniversary approaching, Fr Shamasha, its Provost, spoke to Vatican News about its original goal of educating Iraq's religious minorities, its new department of Oriental Studies and Comparative Religion, and his plans for its second decade. The following transcript has been edited for style and brevity. Vatican News: How did the Catholic University in Erbil get started? Fr Karam Shamasha: The university began in 2014, when Iraqi Christians were being displaced from their villages by ISIS. In 2015, His Excellency Archbishop Warda, the Archbishop of Erbil, saw that the Church was helping people by feeding people, protecting them, giving them places to stay, and decided that we had to educate them, too. So he started the Catholic University in Erbil. We began contacting people around the world to help us make this dream a reality. In the beginning, we had help from the Italian Bishops' conference, and other organisations. At first, we had students from the minority groups, like Yazidis, Christians, and so on. They had been displaced by ISIS, forced to leave their houses. Today, we have around 725 students. Most of them are Christian, around 60%, around 30% Muslims, and the other 10% are Yazidis and other minorities. So we have all the colours of Iraq, all the ethnicities. We hope to be a light, the place where people can learn about virtue. We don't want to just provide a normal education. The majority of Iraqis are Muslims, and the Christians are very few – we're getting to be as few as 200,000, and the number is always decreasing. But we really want to be a light in society, not just providing education, but also peace-building, and building relations between different groups. What sort of reactions have you had to your mission? In the beginning, people thought it was a little bit strange that we were trying to build something Catholic in a Muslim-majority region. But our view is: this is our land, and we want to be here, not just as a statistic, but as a light in society. It would be terrible, for all Christians, if in the future there were no Christians in Iraq. So the fact that we now have a university, a Catholic university – that's not a small thing for us. It's the only university in the Middle East with that kind of name. There are many Catholic universities in Lebanon, in Palestine, and so on, but none of them have the title 'Catholic University of X'. In September, the university will celebrate its tenth anniversary. What does that feel like, and what's your vision for the next ten years? We're so excited about the anniversary, and very grateful for all the people that helped us to get here. For the next ten years, we want to integrate more into the world of international Catholic higher education. A few months ago, we were able to get membership of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and I'm now working to connect with the International Federation of Catholic Universities. As I said, we don't want to just provide a normal education. We want to provide a very high-quality education based on the Catholic intellectual tradition. In our mission statement, we say that very clearly. We also really want to provide a good education in Oriental Studies, about Mesopotamia and the origins of Christianity and the other religions. We've already opened a department of Oriental Studies and Comparative Religions, and this is an area we're really focusing on – teaching our students about the origins of their own religions and other religions, and in this way contributing to peacebuilding. You said that 40% of your students aren't Christian, so this comparative approach must be something that students of other religions also really appreciate? Yes, definitely. In fact, when many people in Iraq hear that the Church is behind the university, they have confidence in it, and they feel sure that their children will be safe there, and will receive the best kind of education. This is also the mission of the Church, which is mater et magistra , mother and teacher. Providing an education is part of our mission, and we're working to be an education centre for students of all faiths. Part of that is this new department of Oriental Studies and Comparative Religion, dedicated to peacebuilding. We really want to be a place for spreading the light of good relationships among communities, and building the common good together. Changing the subject a bit: You're in Rome for the Jubilee with a group of parishioners, and you've all made the trip from Iraq. It's really wonderful to be here in these days. They are days of grace for every Christian. We came from Nineveh to Rome. It's not an easy thing to do, because Rome is a city full of martyrs, and in Nineveh, we also have a lot of martyrs. So our visit is almost like a hug between sisters. We bring with us all the suffering that we've lived there, and we came here to receive the hope that Pope Francis invited all Christians to receive when he announced the Jubilee year. And we want to go out from here and spread that light of hope. We travelled from the land of the martyrs, where as Christians we don't know what our future will be, to the city of the martyrs. We came here with a number of different families. I have 45 with me, of all ages, including youth, adults, the elderly. And we came with hope, because we come from a Church that sometimes feels isolated, but we know that the Popes have never forgotten about us in their homilies and in their words, and all of them have been praying for us, from the invasion in 2003 to the present day. And so we also came to say thank you, and to be in communion with the Church of Rome. We've seen pilgrims from all over the world here, and we're very happy to be a part of that.--Vatican News
Shafaq News
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Iraqis hold memorial mass in Baghdad for late Pope Francis
Shafaq News/ Tearful prayers filled the air as Iraqi Christians gathered on Friday at Mar Yousif Chaldean Church in Baghdad to hold a memorial mass for the late Pope Francis. Priests, nuns, and worshippers assembled at the church in the Karrada district, where hymns were sung and prayers offered for the Pope's soul in a solemn and emotional ceremony, Shafaq News correspondent reported, adding that a portrait of the late pontiff was placed at the altar alongside the Iraqi flag, symbolizing his historic ties with the country. Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21 after months of health complications, made a landmark visit to Iraq in March 2021 —the first by any pontiff to the country. During his trip, he met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, visited Baghdad, Mosul, and Erbil, and celebrated an open-air mass attended by thousands. Iraqi and Kurdish leaders, including Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, mourned Pope Francis as a symbol of peace. Delegations from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are set to participate in the official farewell ceremony in Rome.
Arab News
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
For Iraqi Christians, pope's visit was a rare moment of hope
BAGHDAD: The death of Pope Francis has sent shockwaves through Iraq's Christian community, where his presence once brought hope after one of the darkest chapters in the country's recent history. His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement. Just a few years before that, many Iraqi Christians had fled their homes as Daesh militants swept across the country. Christian communities in Iraq, once numbering over a million, had already been reduced to a fraction of their former number by decades of conflict and mass emigration. In Mosul, the site of some of the fiercest battles between Iraqi security forces and Daesh, Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Moussa Michaeel recalled the pope's visit to the battle-scarred city at a time when many visitors were still afraid to come as a moment of joy, 'like a wedding for the people of Mosul.' 'He broke this barrier and stood firm in the devastated city of Mosul, proclaiming a message of love, brotherhood, and peaceful coexistence,' Michaeel said. As Francis delivered a speech in the city's Al-Midan area, which had been almost completely reduced to rubble, the archbishop said, he saw tears falling from the pope's eyes. Sa'dullah Rassam, who was among the Christians who fled from Mosul in 2014 in the face of the Daesh offensive, was also crying as he watched the pope leave the church in Midan that day. Rassam had spent years displaced in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, but was among the first Christians to return to Mosul, where he lives in a small house next to the church that Francis had visited. As the pope's convoy was leaving the church, Rassam stood outside watching. 'It was the best day of my life,' Rassam said.
Nahar Net
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
For Iraqi Christians, Pope Francis' visit was a rare moment of hope
by Naharnet Newsdesk 22 April 2025, 14:48 The death of Pope Francis has sent shockwaves through Iraq's Christian community, where his presence once brought hope after one of the darkest chapters in the country's recent history. His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement. Just a few years before that, many Iraqi Christians had fled their homes as Islamic State militants swept across the country. Christian communities in Iraq, once numbering over a million, had already been reduced to a fraction of their former number by decades of conflict and mass emigration. In Mosul, the site of some of the fiercest battles between Iraqi security forces and the Islamic State, Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Moussa Michaeel recalled the pope's visit to the battle-scarred city at a time when many visitors were still afraid to come as a moment of joy, "like a wedding for the people of Mosul." "He broke this barrier and stood firm in the devastated city of Mosul, proclaiming a message of love, brotherhood, and peaceful coexistence," Michaeel said. As Francis delivered a speech in the city's al-Midan area, which had been almost completely reduced to rubble, the archbishop said, he saw tears falling from the pope's eyes. Sa'dullah Rassam, who was among the Christians who fled from Mosul in 2014 in the face of the IS offensive, was also crying as he watched the pope leave the church in Midan that day. Rassam had spent years displaced in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, but was among the first Christians to return to Mosul, where he lives in a small house next to the church that Francis had visited. As the pope's convoy was leaving the church, Rassam stood outside watching, tears streaming down his face. Suddenly the car stopped, and Francis got out to greet him. "It was the best day of my life," Rassam said. The pope's visit "made us feel loved and heard, and it helped heal our wounds after everything that happened here," he said. The visit also helped to spur a drive to rebuild the city's destroyed sites, including both Muslim and Christian places of worship. "After the wide international media coverage of his visit, many parties began to invest again in the city. Today, Mosul is beginning to rise again," Michaeel said. "You can see our heritage reappear in the sculptures, the churches and the streets." Building ties across communities Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako told The Associated Press that Francis had built strong relationships with the Eastern rite churches — which are often forgotten by their Latin rite counterparts — and with Muslim communities. The patriarch recalled urging Francis early in his papacy to highlight the importance of Muslim-Christian coexistence. After the pope's inaugural speech, in which he thanked representatives of the Jewish community for their presence, Sako said, "I asked him, 'Why didn't you mention Muslims?'... He said, 'Tomorrow I will speak about Muslims,' and indeed he did issue a statement the next day." Francis went on to take "concrete steps to strengthen relationships" between Christians and Muslims through visits to Muslim-majority countries — including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan as well as Iraq — Sako said. "He brought Muslims and Christians together around shared values." His three-day visit to Iraq "changed Iraq's face — it opened Iraq to the outside world," Sako said, while "the people loved him for his simplicity and sincerity." The patriarch said that three months before the pope's death, he had given him a gift of dates from Iraq, and Francis responded that he "would never forget Iraq and that it was in his heart and in his prayers." During his visit to Iraq, Francis held a historic meeting with the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, at the latter's home in Najaf. Sistani's office in a statement Monday expressed "deep sorrow" at the pope's death, saying he was "greatly respected by all for his distinguished role in serving the causes of peace and tolerance, and for expressing solidarity with the oppressed and persecuted across the globe." The meeting between the two religious leaders had helped to "promote a culture of peaceful coexistence, reject violence and hatred, and uphold values of harmony based on safeguarding rights and mutual respect among followers of different religions and intellectual traditions," it said. "Our favorite pope" In Irbil, Marvel Rassam recalled joining the crowds who packed into a stadium to catch a glimpse of the pope. The visit brought a sense of unity, Rassam said, "as everyone attended to see him, and not only the Catholics." "He was our favorite pope, not only because he was the first to visit Iraq, but he was also very special and unique for his humility and inclusivity," he said. At St. Joseph Chaldean Cathedral in Baghdad, where Francis led a Mass during his 2021 visit, church pastor Nadhir Dako said the pope's visit had carried special weight because it came at a time when Christians in Iraq were still processing the trauma of the IS attacks. "We, the Christians, were in very difficult situation. There was frustration due to the forcible migration and the killing that occurred," Dako said. "The visit by the pope created a sort of determination for all Iraqis to support their Christian brothers."
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Opinion - Beyond charity, foreign aid is America's best insurance policy
Eight days — that is how long it took for children to lose access to lifesaving HIV medication, after the president's executive order that paused foreign aid. Eight days is a blink of an eye in the policy world, where things move glacially or not at all. But it means everything to a five-year-old girl in South Africa, who showed up to her appointment on Jan. 28, only to find her clinic shuttered. For the last 20 years of my career, I've helped make sure that five-year-olds everywhere have access to basic medical care. I have worked on HIV, schistosomiasis, hookworm, trachoma, malaria and malnutrition. You name a disease that makes kids sick, I've probably worked on it at some point. Or I did, until Jan. 31, when I was furloughed from my job at a USAID implementing partner. My career in global health came to an abrupt halt. It didn't have to end like this. Foreign aid has always responded to the foreign policy priorities of a new president. Following wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, USAID was there with reconstruction efforts, the front line of our efforts to build functional civil societies. Under the direction of the first Trump administration, USAID protected and continues to protect the religious freedom of Iraqi Christians. USAID defends against illegal migration from Central America by supporting the reintegration of returned migrants, economic opportunities for women and helping kids stay away from violent gangs. If asked, foreign aid would have followed the priorities of Trump's second administration, as well. In 2006, I was following a similar path as many of you. I was a 23-year-old intern, working for an advocacy organization, developing contacts on the Hill and meeting with congressional staffers to explain why health centers were such a critical foundation of the American health system. I eventually chose global health because of the outsized impact that I believed I could have addressing human suffering. For example, at the time viral infections leading to dehydration were the leading cause of death among children in developing countries, an easily treated problem with clean water and a packet of salt. Over my career, I've seen incredible progress. Dehydration is no longer the leading cause of death among kids — we now have vaccines that prevent infection. From 2000 to 2015, malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa have declined by 57 percent, while many tropical diseases are near elimination. Extreme poverty has been cut in half. We were winning this fight. But foreign aid is not charity. It is the United States' insurance policy, protecting us from bird flu, ebola, violent terrorism, illegal migration and political instability. USAID provides 200,000 Guatemalans with the skills they need to be secure in their own country so that they do not migrate to the U.S. It also evangelizes American values, allowing us to share the good news of free markets, free speech and free people. As other countries see these American values in action, they become our allies and trade partners, making us all richer and more secure. If I had remained in advocacy, I'd likely still be employed. I would be … you, reading this article at my desk, drinking my first cup of coffee, on the metro trying to find a seat, looking down at my phone while walking from Longworth to Cannon. I might be working for a member of Congress, not as focused on health perhaps, but still working for the American values that I hold dear, as do so many of you. What would I want this 'other Taylor' to know? I would want him to understand the global nature of pandemics, and the importance of foreign aid in preventing them. He should know how much we've learned from other health insurance systems and how foreign aid supports knowledge exchange between hospitals in America and those in other countries. I would want him to understand how foreign aid protects us and promotes core American values. With this knowledge, this other Taylor now has a choice to make. Does he return to his warm cup of coffee, his search for a seat on Metro, his walk to Cannon? Or does he take action, even in the face of enormous pressure to stay silent? Does he remember that eight days in January can be the difference between life and death for a South African child, realize that America continues to be the shining city on the hill and decide that NOW is the time to save foreign aid? Taylor Williamson was the director of health systems for a USAID implementing partner. He has spent 20 years designing and implementing health systems programs throughout Africa and South Asia. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
