In visit to Kurdistan, Bp. Cantu hears priorities of Iraqi Christians

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By Dale Gavlak | Catholic News Service
An Iraqi soldier stood guard during Christmas celebrations at the al-Tahira al-Kubra church in al-Hamdaniya, east of Mosul. Bishop Oscar Cantu, the chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, said after a visit with Iraqi Christians that he would advocate for a rebuilt Iraq that allows people of many religions and ethnicities to live side by side.

Ahmed Jalil | EPA

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, N.M., said 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,” Bishop Cantu said, 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.”

Bishop Cantu chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. In that capacity, he led a small delegation Jan. 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 battle to flush out the militants.

Catholic clergy “really want to establish some normalcy in the midst of displacement,” Bishop 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. Archbishop Warda also has restored personal dignity by moving displaced Christians from camps into homes with a rent assistance program.

Meanwhile, Archbishop 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 Bishop 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.”

Both Bishop 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 said 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.”

O’Keefe felt there was a “bit of a lost hope as the Christians have to grapple with the vulnerability they find themselves in.”

“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 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 Archbishops 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.

http://stlouisreview.com/article/2017-01-19/visit-kurdistan-bp