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CNA Newsroom, Nov 15, 2022 / 08:25 am A church bell that was kept hidden by a Muslim family during the Islamic State’s occupation of Mosul rang out above St. Paul’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral on Sunday for the first time in eight years. Christians from across Iraq’s Nineveh Plain came to the cathedral to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony and Divine Liturgy on Nov. 13. Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel, OP, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul and Akra, led a procession to the grotto of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of Mosul, in the church courtyard before ceremoniously ringing the bell. The...

A bomb attack on the home of a Catholic shopkeeper in southern Iraq has been condemned by the head of the country’s largest Church, who has said that such attacks have driven an exodus of Christians. According to police, a motorcyclist threw a homemade explosive at the Chaldean Catholic shopkeeper’s house in Amarah, capital of Maysan Governorate, on Sunday (28th November). In his statement on the fire-bombing, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Baghdad-based Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, said: “Fortunately, no one was killed or wounded, but the act ‘sparked terror in the family and the Christian community’ because...

A large roundup of Iraqi Christians by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been met with widespread criticism toward President Donald Trump, who previously pledged to protect such communities from persecution in the Middle East. Dozens of Iraqi Christians and other immigrants were seized over the weekend in a series of ICE raids, many of which took place in Michigan, a state known for its large Middle Eastern population. Those arrested face risk of deportation back to their home countries, some of which Trump had previously criticized as being hostile toward Christians. Many of the detained are facing years-old charges...

A view from the Christian town of Alqosh in the Nineveh Plain.For more than two years it lasted, just minutes away from Islamic State-held territory. The Iraqi town of Alqosh (50km north of Mosul) is the only Christian stronghold in the country that survived IS. Looking for signs of hope for the future of Christianity in Iraq? This town, with its four churches, two monasteries and 500 Christian families, is where it can be found. For those who grew up reading the Bible, Alqosh might ring a distant bell. It was the town where Old Testament prophet Nahum, "the Elkoshite",...

I was born in Baghdad, but all my ancestors before me, including my parents, where born in Mosul and neighboring cities in Northern Iraq. Even now when I speak Arabic it is still with a Moslouy dialect. For many years, no matter where I was living or what I was doing, the answer to “Where are you from?” was one of identity: “Ana Maslouy.” I am a Mosulian. And I am, all the way down, in spite of my thoroughly Americanized personality—such is the deep and dual identity of immigrants.Born to a Chaldean Catholic mother and a Syriac Orthodox...

An Iraqi bishop says waging war against ISIS fighters is the only way to save the Christian Church in IraqThe leader of one of Christianity's oldest communities reluctantly says that waging war against ISIS - killing their fighters - is the only way to stop the radical Islamists from destroying Christianity in Iraq. Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil speaks to Lara Logan for her report on the plight of thousands of Christians forced to flee ancestral homes from ISIS. Her story will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, March 22 AT 7 p.m. ET/PT. The situation with ISIS in Northern...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The head of Iraq's largest church said on Sunday that Islamic State militants who drove Christians out of Mosul were worse than Mongol leader Genghis Khan and his grandson Hulagu who ransacked medieval Baghdad. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako led a wave of condemnation for the Sunni Islamists who demanded Christians either convert, submit to their radical rule and pay a religious levy or face death by the sword. At the Vatican, Pope Francis decried what he said was the persecution of Christians in the birthplace of their faith, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the...

It was Christmas in Iraq as well as America, but there were fewer celebrations than in the past. Iraq has become a particularly dangerous place for Christians: it is safer to stay home than attend services, and even better to seek refuge in Kurdish territory or leave Iraq entirely. Washington is filled with talk of new directions in Iraq. President George W. Bush has largely dismissed the Iraq Study Group report and apparently plans on modestly upping U.S. occupation forces. However, a temporary surge isn't likely to have much permanent effect. The future of Iraq almost certainly is in the...

Iraqi Christians flourished long before Muslims By Steve Gushee Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Friday, January 28, 2005 The kidnapping of a Catholic bishop in Mosul last week is a sad reminder of the once robust but rapidly diminishing Christian community in Iraq. Insurgents abducted Syrian Catholic Archbishop BasileCasmoussa apparently to frighten Iraqi Christians. They wanted to discourage Christians from voting on Sunday, according to Iraqi bishop, Louis Sako of Kirkuk. Both bishops are members of a branch of the Roman Catholic Church and one of several small, eclectic church groups in the country. Christians flourished in Iraq long before...