TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF CHRISTIAN ERADICATION FROM THE NINEVEH PLAIN

    Below the Speech of His Beatitude Mor Ignatius Youssef III YOUNAN, Patriarch of Antioch for the Syriac Catholic Church, in the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of Christian Eradication from the Nineveh Plain:

“..Nor death…will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Ro 8:38-39)

    Ten years ago, on August 6, 2014, the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor, hundreds of thousands of Christians and other minorities were horribly attacked by the terrorist gangs of the Islamic State, “ISIS”, (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). These gangs had already invaded Mosul, then the second largest city in Iraq and the home of many ancient Christian Churches.

    Who could forget the letter “noun” written on the doors to identify the Christians of Mosul, to make them a target and to inflict on them all kinds of discriminations, oppression, murders and uprooting! Our Christian communities were radically uprooted from their native land of the Nineveh Plain, and forced to take refuge in Kurdistan enduring the harshness of nature in the open air or living in tents for more than two years. During this horrible ordeal, our Syriac Churches were preparing to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of “Sayfo”, the genocide of Christians: Armenians, Syriacs, Chaldeans and Assyrians in the year 1915! It is with pride that we must recognize that our martyrs of the 21th century have united their blood with that of their ancestors, heroically bearing witness to their faith to the point of martyrdom.

    Despite the vicissitudes of exile and the forced separation of family members, the Transfiguration of Christ the Lord and God-Incarnate will remind us that the forces of evil can never prevail. Taking up the assertion of Saint Paul to the Romans: neither distress, nor anguish, nor persecution… not even death, nothing will be able to separate us from the Love of Christ (Rom 8), as long as we live true communion with God the Father, to become witnesses again to the Gospel of Love, Forgiveness and Peace.

    “Fear not, little flock” (Luke 12:32)

    Dear sons and daughters of our Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, we admire your perseverance in the faith, wherever you are, rooted in the land of your ancestors or uprooted in new and distant lands. Abandon yourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom you have been identified. He will forever remain your and our HOPE.

    Ignatius Youssef III YOUNAN

    Patriarch of Antioch for the Syriac Catholic Church