Parish hears update on persecuted Iraqi Christians
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
Too often ignored by many media outlets, the plight of persecuted Iraqi Christians hit home dramatically in St. Peter Church, Point Pleasant Beach, April 22.
There, as the lights were dimmed, a moving multimedia presentation by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association captured life in the limbo of the crowded Iraqi refugee camps of Lebanon, Jordan and Kurdish cities of Iraq.
For more than an hour, the attendees got to experience the precarious existence in which this endangered ancient Christian community lives through photos, commentary and prayer.
Billed as “an evening of prayer and updates on the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq,” the event raised more than $325 for CNEWA, a papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral support throughout the Middle East, India, Ethiopia, Northeast Africa and Eastern Europe. The evening was sponsored by St. Peter’s Rosary Altar Society.
The society’s president, Dorothy O’Reilly, said the aim of the evening was to help people become more aware of what the Church is doing to aid persecuted Christians.
“A lot of people have no clue and there’s not much information. In general, people are not even aware. It’s not on television or the mainstream media,” O’Reilly said.
The presentation, narrated by Norma J. Intriago, CNEWA development director, did just that.
Moving photos showed families striving to stay healthy despite soaring heat and freezing cold in “homes” fashioned out of refrigeration crates.
Many of the photos, taken in Mid-April by Msgr. John Kozar, CNEWA’s president, conveyed the stark and lingering reality faced by the thousands of Christians who have fled ISIS since 2014. The photos also offered a hint of the hope that still lingers for these heirs to some of the earliest Christian belief systems, said Intriago, who was assisted by Philip W. Eubanks, CNEWA development associate.
Intriago explained that while “there is so much darkness,” the story of these Iraqi refugees is also the story of great faith and profound hope.
It is a story, she said, of the “Church focusing on the heart of the Middle East. A story of why it is so critical to help” those fleeing for their lives.
She outlined the tidal wave of violence that began in Iraq in July 2014, which sent 25,000 Christians fleeing from the city of Mosul. Barely one month later, ISIS seized Iraq’s Nineveh plain, described in CNEWA handouts as “the Christian heartland.”
All told, more than 120,000 Christians escaped and are now living crowded together, their lives in shambles. Roughly two-thirds are Chaldean Catholics, while others belong to the Armenian, and Syriac Catholic churches, as well as non-Catholic Eastern churches.
Overall, CNEWA’s numbers show, the Christian population of Iraq has declined steadily from 20 percent in 1932 to 10 percent in 1980, to less than 1 percent in 2015. Intriago estimated that since the ISIS incursion, the population has dwindled further to about 100,000, she said, in “an area where once Christians and Muslims lived side-by-side.”
As the numbers of refugees have “overwhelmed schools and churches,” she said, “their hope is in the Church.”
Intriago spoke warmly of the partnership with the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, Franciscan Missionaries and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd who care for the displaced throughout Iraq, Jordan and Syria, among others.
Working with such local partners, CNEWA’s clinics furnish lifesaving medicine and supplies used to meet the healthcare needs of the community of Christians, Muslims and Yazidis who suffer from a range of conditions including post-traumatic stress, diabetes, stroke and respiratory problems often brought on by the poor conditions including the use of gas fed heaters which often leak.
She spoke of the abiding faith of people who place “all hope in the Resurrection” and urged those present to pray for the suffering church and “be the lights” of those who are suffering.
“Learn more about who they are,” she said. “Share their stories. Write to congressmen and legislators. Be their voice. You don’t hear about this in the media. We all share in the Blood of Christ. As we celebrate Easter, don’t forget our brothers and sisters. Let them know we care.”
Among those agreeing that it’s important to keep the issue alive before the press and with legislators was Gassan Michael who attended with his wife, Lina. The couple, who belong to St. Thomas More Parish, Manalapan, left Iraq with their families years before the current conflict.
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Too often ignored by many media outlets, the plight of persecuted Iraqi Christians hit home dramatically in St. Peter Church, Point Pleasant Beach, April 22.
There, as the lights were dimmed, a moving multimedia presentation by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association captured life in the limbo of the crowded Iraqi refugee camps of Lebanon, Jordan and Kurdish cities of Iraq.
For more than an hour, the attendees got to experience the precarious existence in which this endangered ancient Christian community lives through photos, commentary and prayer.
Billed as “an evening of prayer and updates on the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq,” the event raised more than $325 for CNEWA, a papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral support throughout the Middle East, India, Ethiopia, Northeast Africa and Eastern Europe. The evening was sponsored by St. Peter’s Rosary Altar Society.
The society’s president, Dorothy O’Reilly, said the aim of the evening was to help people become more aware of what the Church is doing to aid persecuted Christians.
“A lot of people have no clue and there’s not much information. In general, people are not even aware. It’s not on television or the mainstream media,” O’Reilly said.
The presentation, narrated by Norma J. Intriago, CNEWA development director, did just that.
Moving photos showed families striving to stay healthy despite soaring heat and freezing cold in “homes” fashioned out of refrigeration crates.
Many of the photos, taken in Mid-April by Msgr. John Kozar, CNEWA’s president, conveyed the stark and lingering reality faced by the thousands of Christians who have fled ISIS since 2014. The photos also offered a hint of the hope that still lingers for these heirs to some of the earliest Christian belief systems, said Intriago, who was assisted by Philip W. Eubanks, CNEWA development associate.
Intriago explained that while “there is so much darkness,” the story of these Iraqi refugees is also the story of great faith and profound hope.
It is a story, she said, of the “Church focusing on the heart of the Middle East. A story of why it is so critical to help” those fleeing for their lives.
She outlined the tidal wave of violence that began in Iraq in July 2014, which sent 25,000 Christians fleeing from the city of Mosul. Barely one month later, ISIS seized Iraq’s Nineveh plain, described in CNEWA handouts as “the Christian heartland.”
All told, more than 120,000 Christians escaped and are now living crowded together, their lives in shambles. Roughly two-thirds are Chaldean Catholics, while others belong to the Armenian, and Syriac Catholic churches, as well as non-Catholic Eastern churches.
Overall, CNEWA’s numbers show, the Christian population of Iraq has declined steadily from 20 percent in 1932 to 10 percent in 1980, to less than 1 percent in 2015. Intriago estimated that since the ISIS incursion, the population has dwindled further to about 100,000, she said, in “an area where once Christians and Muslims lived side-by-side.”
As the numbers of refugees have “overwhelmed schools and churches,” she said, “their hope is in the Church.”
Intriago spoke warmly of the partnership with the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, Franciscan Missionaries and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd who care for the displaced throughout Iraq, Jordan and Syria, among others.
Working with such local partners, CNEWA’s clinics furnish lifesaving medicine and supplies used to meet the healthcare needs of the community of Christians, Muslims and Yazidis who suffer from a range of conditions including post-traumatic stress, diabetes, stroke and respiratory problems often brought on by the poor conditions including the use of gas fed heaters which often leak.
She spoke of the abiding faith of people who place “all hope in the Resurrection” and urged those present to pray for the suffering church and “be the lights” of those who are suffering.
“Learn more about who they are,” she said. “Share their stories. Write to congressmen and legislators. Be their voice. You don’t hear about this in the media. We all share in the Blood of Christ. As we celebrate Easter, don’t forget our brothers and sisters. Let them know we care.”
Among those agreeing that it’s important to keep the issue alive before the press and with legislators was Gassan Michael who attended with his wife, Lina. The couple, who belong to St. Thomas More Parish, Manalapan, left Iraq with their families years before the current conflict.
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