CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- According an Italian Catholic new organization, Pope Francis made a phone call to Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III Younan over the weekend to reassure him of his continued prayers for Iraqi Christians.<\/p>\n\tFollowing the July 19 burning down of the Episcopal palace of Syrian-Catholics in Mosul, Italian Catholic news organization SIR reports that Pope Francis made a phone call to the Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III Younan of Antioch the afternoon of July 20 to express his condolences and closeness in a time of persecution.<\/p>\n
\tThe agency reports that during their 9 minute conversation, the Pope reassured the patriarch \u201cthat he follows closely and with concern the drama of forced and threatened Christians in the Iraqi city of Mosul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSIR referred to other reports coming from the Syrian-Catholic Patriarchate, which stated that Patriarch Younan \u201cthanked the Pope\u201d and asked him to \u201cintensify\u201d his efforts to engage world leaders by bringing them face-to-face with the fact that the province of Nineveh is undergoing \u201ca mass cleaning based on religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAt the end of the call Pope Francis gave his apostolic blessing to the patriarch and to \u201call the Christian people of the East,\u201d assuring that he \u201cwill always be present in his prayers for peace and security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMembers of ISIS, a militant group that operates in Iraq and Syria with the aim of establishing a caliphate in northern Syria and Iraq, overtook the country\u2019s second-largest city, Mosul and the city of Tikrit, 95 miles north of Baghdad, June 10.<\/p>\n
\tThe group had seized portions of Ramadi and Falluja earlier; Tal Afar was seized by ISIS June 16; and the group briefly held parts of Baquba, 37 miles outside of Baghdad, the following day.<\/p>\n
\tISIS currently controls much of the Sunni areas of northern and western Iraq, as well as cities along the Euphrates River in northwest Syria.<\/p>\n
\tThursday the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate declared to the remaining Christian community of Mosul that they either needed openly convert to Islam, pay an unspecified jizya tax in exchange for their safety while observing certain conditions, or leave their homes with only their clothes, nothing more.<\/p>\n
\tFollowing Thursday\u2019s declaration, the houses of Mosul Christians were marked with an \u201cN,\u201d signifying \u201cNazarenes.\u201d As a result, the few remaining Christians have left, marking the first time in history the city has been without Christians.<\/p>\n
\tFr. Nawar, a priest from Nineveh currently living in Rome, spoke with CNA July 22, stating that the country is overrun by \u201cwar, violence, conflict. It is not the same Iraq as before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHailing from the Iraqi city of Karakosh on the plains of Nineveh, a city currently under Kurdish protection and where many citizens fleeing Mosul are taking refuge, Fr. Nawar lamented the exodus of Christians from the city, stating that \u201cfor four days there have been no Christians in Mosul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAll of them left because there is fear,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of the Christians are leaving. Families left for Nineveh by foot. There is no car, no money. Many people right now are afraid, afraid of this future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cToday life, Christian life in Iraq, is very hard,\u201d the Iraqi priest continued, explaining how when many times when families have attempted to leave the city they were stopped and asked \u201cwhere are you going?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhen they responded \u201cI\u2019m leaving because I\u2019m afraid in this city,\u201d militant forces tell them to stop and get out of the car. Then \u201cwhoever has money, gold, documents\u2026they take all of it,\u201d Fr. Nawar observed, explaining that for those who do not leave, \u201cI think they die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tNoting how the future of the country is \u201cnot certain\u201d he explained that it\u2019s hard to say what the future will bring \u201cbecause today thousands of Christian families are leaving for Nineveh. Today there is no Christianity in Mosul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere has been war every day, every day the war has developed, there is no peace, there is no dialogue, there is no communication. All of this is a fact right now in Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDespite the current discord and seemingly bleak outlook of the country, Fr. Nawar, who is in daily contact with his bishop and other priests in Iraq, explained that there is still hope \u201cbecause we believe in Christianity\u201d and \u201cwe believe in hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe are with every person. Sick, in pain. But even today there is fear,\u201d the priest observed. \u201cEvery day there is the need to confront this fear. This is the question.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cEven today many Christians from other cities, other regions also have fear\u2026in Karakosh, also in Baghdad, there is fear. They don\u2019t know, they don\u2019t know what to do in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Vatican City, Jul 22, 2014 \/ 10:54 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- According an Italian Catholic new organization, Pope Francis made a phone call to Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III Younan over the weekend to reassure him of his continued prayers for Iraqi Christia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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