For the first time since 1893, the Syriac Catholic of Antioch Church has to convene her Bishops Ordinary Synod outside the patriarchal See in Lebanon. This historical event reuniting the 20 active Bishops, including the Patriarch Ignatius Youssef III YOUNAN, was held on September 10-15 2023, in Qaraqosh, Nineveh, which is presently the home of the largest Christian community in Iraq. By doing so, they wanted to show their proximity to the Christians of North Iraq, who were so tormented and forced into exile by the terrorist bands of DAECH, and share with them the joy and pride for their liberation and return to their hometowns in the Plain of Nineveh, after the genocide and uprooting of 2014.

    The Synod’s Fathers coming from the Middle-East and the Church of Extension abroad, by holding the Ordinary Annual Synod in Iraq, were rightly intending to show their gratefulness and admiration to thousands of Christians who did choose to remain rooted in their homeland or made return, despite all kinds of oppressions and threats.  

    Patriarch YOUNAN had earlier met with the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister in Baghdad, Iraq, to inform them of the special meaning of holding the Bishops Synod of his Syriac Catholic Church in Iraq. He also thanked them and the Iraqi official institutions for their praiseworthy efforts toward the protection of the civil rights of all, their repeated call for the return of uprooted Christians to their homes, as well as their consistent work for peace and stabilization.