Iraq urges Christians driven out by ISIS to return as new cathedral opens

Iraq’s Christians received a message of hope this week when a Coptic Orthodox cathedral opened in Baghdad, with officials urging Christians who had left to come home.

The new church is a signal for Iraqi Christians abroad to come back, because “Iraq is safe and needs them,” Karim Hammadi, who runs the Iraqi Media Network, told the Iraqi News Agency at the opening ceremony.

The network is Iraq’s public broadcaster, and the agency is the state wire service.

Hammadi said the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, St. Paul the Anchorite and St. Anthony the Great belongs to the Egyptian Christian tradition and called it the first such church in Iraq. That gives it great symbolic weight, he said. The Coptic Orthodox Church is the ancient church of Egypt, and the cathedral is expected to serve Egyptian Copts living in Iraq as well as other worshippers.

He said the cathedral in the New Baghdad district was a plain sign that Iraqis of different faiths live side by side and that the country’s civilization makes room for all of them. Iraq is home to many cultures and religions whose followers live together in peace and safety, he added.

Hammadi added that the timing of the opening and the large turnout sent a clear signal that Christians belong first of all in Iraq. The country guards them and will always care for them as a father or an older brother would, he said.

He recalled that more than a decade ago, Islamist militants targeted Christians and church buildings, among them Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, where a 2010 siege by the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate that later became the Islamic State (ISIS), killed more than 50 people. Christians were also driven from their land and houses in Mosul and in other cities that ISIS seized in 2014, he said.

Thair Al-Ghanimi, who chairs the network’s board of trustees, also attended the ceremony, the news agency said. Several ministers and other officials, along with leading clergy and politicians, were present. 

The board said Al-Ghanimi’s presence was meant to affirm the value of religious and cultural diversity and to strengthen unity and brotherhood among Iraqis. It said his attendance would also help build tolerance and coexistence between the country’s communities.

Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi reportedly spoke at the event. He was quoted as saying that the cathedral adds a landmark to the holy heritage of Mesopotamia.

Al-Zaidi called Iraq’s diversity a gift that protects its people from intolerance and division. Iraqis have proved that their common national identity can stand firm against agendas aimed at destabilizing the country, he said.

He added that his government had pledged from its first day in office to protect the unity and rights of all Iraqis, whatever their background. He also said the government would keep meeting its duties in politics, the economy and the delivery of public services.

Al-Zaidi set out his government’s program, saying it would keep fighting corruption, bring every weapon in the country under state control and build a strong state on the basis of security, a sound economy and respect for the law.

He added that Iraq had built its foreign ties on its own interests and on respect for Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Under the Watan Initiative, named for the Arabic word for homeland, the government plans to hand out 1 million residential plots so that every Iraqi family without a home benefits, Al-Zaidi said. Foundation stones for the plots project will be laid in every governorate before the end of this year, he added.

He also said the government had completed the launch of a farmland plots program to boost food security and create jobs. It has also ordered work to begin on new cities for industry, business and government offices meant to draw development and investment, he said.

According to Al-Zaidi, the Development Road Project would change Iraq’s role in trade and transport within the region and beyond. The project is a planned road and rail link from the Grand Faw port in southern Iraq to Turkey.

He said the Future Generations Fund would invest national resources and fund strategic projects to diversify the economy. The government aims to turn Iraq into a productive economy that offers jobs and basic services to its people, he added.

Kaldo Oghanna, a Chaldean Catholic MP who holds one of the five seats reserved for Christians under Iraq’s quota system, told The Catholic Register in September that “Iraq’s government is weak and has inadequate control of Iran-backed militias that cause a lot of trouble,” and called for stopping “the outflow before inviting diaspora Christians to return.”