Iraqi Christians challenge our lukewarm faith
The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil in Northern Iraq is a short, stocky man of about 50 years with a tremendous weight on his shoulders. Within his territory in Kurdistan he is responsible for the wellbeing of 125,000 displaced people, mostly Chaldean Christians like himself, but also some Yazidis and some Shia casualties of Islam’s sectarianism.
This is not merely a cure of souls. Archbishop Bashar Warda has taken on the responsibility to feed, shelter, clothe and educate them. For the ancient Christian community on the Plains of Nineveh was in the path of the ISIS territory grab. Faced with the options of converting to Islam, paying the jizya tax or being killed, they fled their homes and headed north to relative safety. They had been stripped of anything valuable and had their passports confiscated, so they left only in the clothes they wore. Many others were killed. ISIS then burnt their homes and looted and vandalised their churches, daubing them with slogans such as “Allah is great” and “No room for Christians here”.
