ICC Note: After two years of ISIS rule and the mass exodus of Christians from the region, one Chaldean archbishop is encouraging the rest to stay and help rebuild the country. While in Paris, Abp. Yousif Mirkis explained that staying and reeducating a generation is imperative for the survival of the Christian church. He also criticized the integration process for Iraqis in Europe explaining that if the same effort and money had been put to work at home, the issue would have turned out a thousand times better.

01/23/2017 Iraq (Church Militant): A Chaldean archbishop is asking Iraqi Catholics to stay in Iraq to help rebuild the ISIS-ravaged country. While visiting Paris, Abp. Yousif Mirkis remarked, “For me, staying and resisting as a Christian minority is the right way.”

He also criticized the integration process for Iraqi refugees in Europe, saying, “The effort and money spent to integrate these immigrants — if we spent it at home, it would have been a thousand times better.” He criticized the integration process, saying that families are often separated among different countries and disillusioned by their new lives in Europe.

Although he has expressed hope for Iraq’s future, he has also expressed concern. Regarding the people who have been born, grown up and lived under ISIS rule, he says, “What do we do with the millions who have been educated under it?”

Archbishop Mirkis remains optimistic about the future of Christianity in Iraq, despite the persecution of ISIS over the past few years. In May 2016, Mirkis commented:

When our faith reaches the edge, even to the point of death, there is always an intervention of God, something amazing happens. This is the faith of the Old Testament witnessed in Exodus and (the) parting of the Red Sea, and in the New Testament with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, I don’t believe those who say that there won’t be Christians in Iraq.

In 2003, the Christian population in Iraq was 1.4 million but decreased to 275,000 in 2016. In February 2015, Bashar Warda, the Abp. of Erbil, Iraq, testified to the House of Lords, London, on the plight of Christians in Iraq. He said, “For many long centuries, we, the Christians of Iraq, have experienced many long hardships and persecutions, but what we have now experienced are the worst acts of genocide in our homeland. We are facing the extinction of Christianity as a religion in Iraq.”

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