Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshe of Mosul, Iraq, and Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M., pose for a photo in Iraq. After meeting with church leaders in northern Iraq, Bishop Cantu said he will advocate differently for Iraqi religious minorities. (Credit: CNS photo/Stephen Colecchi, USCCB.)
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Dale Gavlak
, January 17, 2017
AMMAN,
Jordan - After meeting with church leaders in northern Iraq, a U.S. bishop said
he will advocate differently for Iraqi religious minorities.
Bishop
Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, told Catholic News Service by phone that
the Iraqi Catholic clergy do not want to see a safe corridor set up for
Christians, as some in Washington have suggested.
Although
security is paramount, they prefer to see reconciliation take place, enabling
Iraq’s diverse mosaic of religions and ethnicities to live side by side. But
that means trust would need to be rebuilt, and that could prove tricky given
the regional and local players involved in Iraq’s multilayered sectarian
conflict.
“We
don’t want to live in a ghetto. That is counterproductive. That makes us a
target for our enemies. We have to live in a secure but integrated community
where Chaldean Catholics, Syriac Catholics, Sunni Muslims, etc., have
relationships with each other,” Cantu told CNS, recounting the remarks made by
Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshe of Mosul, Iraq.
He said
the archbishop told him: “We need an integrated reality, rather than a ‘Gaza’
where there’s a wall and someone is guarding people going in and out.”
Cantu
chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. In that
capacity, he led a small delegation on January 11-13 to see and hear Christian
perspectives in the aftermath of the Islamic State assault in 2014 and the
current U.S.-led coalition’s battle to flush out the militants.
Catholic
clergy “really want to establish some normalcy in the midst of displacement,”
Cantu said. He said he was amazed by the speed with which Chaldean Catholic
Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil has started a Catholic university to provide
education and direction to the youth.
Warda
also has restored personal dignity by moving displaced Christians from camps
into homes with a rent assistance program.
Meanwhile,
Moshe has built a church, an elementary school and a new Catholic University of
Qaraqosh, serving both Christians and Muslims, on land provided by the Kurdish
authorities. All of these facilities were lost when Islamic State militants
invaded Mosul and the surrounding villages in June and August 2014.
Still,
“there is a reality of the wounds created by the neighbors who turned on
neighbors,” said Cantu. He was told that after Christians went back to check on
their properties following the liberation from Islamic State, in some
instances, “neighbors went in, looted and later burned their homes.”
The
terrifying escape from Mosul for a number of Dominican Sisters has left a
profound “sadness in their eyes and voices that question what’s the best for
these Christians,” Cantu said, “whether it is to stay in the midst of anguish
and terror or seek safety and security elsewhere in the world.”
The
displaced Dominicans have been helping other displaced Christians with shelter,
provisions and most recently, by setting up and running a school.
“I
was so taken by their commitment to stay as long as there are Christians in
Iraq,” Cantu said.
Both
Cantu and Stephen Colecchi, director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of
International Justice and Peace, made a similar visit to northern Iraq two
years ago. This time they were also joined by Bill O’Keefe, vice president for
government relations and advocacy at Catholic Relief Services.
O’Keefe
told CNS that, after speaking with internally displaced Christians in Iraq, he
realizes the immense challenges they face.
“The
physical damage to their traditional Christian villages is severe, and security
and trust aren’t present to make them comfortable in going back,” O’Keefe said.
“They need to have their security and their full human rights respected to be
able to return.”
He
said it’s not clear how that will be accomplished. However, O’Keefe said it was
“the responsibility of the central Iraqi state, the Kurdish government (in the
north), and other players involved to come up with a vision where minority
rights are respected and adequate security is provided.”
O’Keefe
felt there was a “bit of a lost hope as the Christians have to grapple with the
vulnerability they find themselves in.”
Although
he said CRS is looking very seriously at rebuilding in the next phase, the
message the delegation got from Iraqi Christians is that “rebuilding needs to
follow security.”
“They
weren’t ready yet to talk about specific plans for rebuilding. Rather they need
to know how safety and security will be provided, which would allow them to
stay,” O’Keefe said. “That’s the first problem which needs to be solved and
it’s inherently a political one.”
To
that end, Colecchi said the U.S. bishops’ Office of International Justice and
Peace in Washington will advocate for the U.S. government to do a “much better
job of working with all the political entities in the region to come up with a
political solution to create an inclusive Iraq.
“Rights
are based on citizenship, the rule of law, equal protection, and where towns
and villages have good degree of self-rule so they can shape their own destiny
and have a real voice in decisions and more immediately impact their community,”
Colecchi said. “That’s how you create protection.”
Both
Moshe and Warda seek Washington’s help to build local institutions, train
police forces, and the judiciary, Colecchi said. But the primary need is to
create the rule of law and citizen rights.
Warda
welcomed last year’s resolution by the U.S. Congress declaring that Islamic
State has committed genocide against minorities in Iraq and Syria, Colecchi
said. He said the archbishop felt the resolution would focus the world’s
attention on the horror as well as force Iraqis to acknowledge that genocide
has taken place and to make sure it will not happen again.
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