Patriarch to ACN: Christians need to have trust before returning to Iraq

Head of the Chaldean Church reveals what he discussed in recent meeting with Iraq’s prime minister.

Eleven years after jihadists forced him to leave his homeland, the newly-elected Patriarch of the Chaldean Church heard a promise directly from Iraq’s prime minister: Iraqis who choose to return to the country will receive the gift of a new home and land.

Patriarch Paul III Nona of Baghdad met recently with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falih al Zaidi, and the churchman was struck by the fact that al Zaidi is a businessman first and a politician second.

“He insists that a good environment starts with a good economy. If we have a good economy, if people feel safe to work and trust in their future, they will come back,” the patriarch said.

The prime minister said that up to 1 million families who want to return to Iraq from the diaspora – including Christians – will be eligible for a land grant and new home.

There might then be some hope for Iraq’s struggling Christian community, whose numbers are a fraction of what they were a quarter century ago, and who face continual pressures to emigrate from their historic homeland.

In fact, Patriarch Paul said, the prime minister wants to see investment in Iraq from Christian Iraqis who are willing to return from the diaspora. “If Chaldeans come back as investors, they will create opportunities for other people,” the patriarch told al Zaidi.

Patriarch Paul spoke recently with Robert Royal, special advisor to the board of Aid to the Church in Need-USA on the matter of Christian persecution, in the latest edition of the “Faith Under Siege” podcast (full broadcast below). In the podcast, Paul touches on his experience as archbishop of Mosul, which he was forced to abandon with the invasion of the Islamic State group in 2014.

“They don’t want us to live our faith. They said openly that if you don’t convert to Islam, we will kill you – or you have to leave. They told me that personally in 2014, and they asked me to announce that to all the Christians,” he recounted. “We don’t leave our faith for any reason. Therefore, they went into the diaspora.”

Paul, who was known at the time as Archbishop Amel Nona, was later elected Eparch of Sydney, Australia. He served there until his April 12 election to succeed Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako.

The situation in Iraq is much better since the defeat of ISIS in 2017, and there is no current threat from any extremist groups, the patriarch acknowledged. But there are still challenges for the Christian community, which he discussed with Prime Minister Al Zaidi earlier this month.

“The people who left Iraq don’t have trust in this country; they don’t have trust in their neighbors, after the experience with ISIS,” he said. “I told the prime minister that we have to create a safe environment for people to come back, first to find a good opportunity for them to work and to live, and also to have a trust in their future.”

Christians face more difficulties in the countryside, where historically many of the villages were Christian, than in cities such as Baghdad or Mosul, he said.

The patriarch, 58, who was enthroned in Baghdad’s St. Joseph Cathedral on May 29, commented on Aid to the Church in Need’s work in Iraq, saying it has included the financial support of several projects and ongoing scholarship for university and high school students. Having children who are studying in Iraq is the kind of thing that keeps families in their homeland.

The pontifical foundation also has supported seminaries and catechetical programs in Iraq.

“I believe what Church in Need did, and are still doing, is essential for our people, for our community to remain and continue their journey of faith,” he said.

The patriarch also called on Catholics to better inform themselves and “know our situation, not from the media but from real sources. the situation of Christians in Iraq and in the Middle East is different from what the media say. Sometimes the big media focus on small things that don’t really affect our real life.”

That advice would apply to governments as well as individuals, he said.

“Put pressure on [Western] governments to understand the situation of Christians in the Middle East before [taking] any action,” he requested of Christians in the West.

Said the patriarch, “Sometimes in the West they don’t understand exactly what’s happening here, how our life is in this region.”

–John Burger

Below is the full broadcast of Robert Royal’s interview with Patriarch Paul III Nona. Previous episodes of “Faith Under Siege” can be found here.