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The church of Mar Behnam and Mart Sarah awaits repairs in Qaraqosh, Iraq. Photo by Kevin Clarke.The church of Mar Behnam and Mart Sarah awaits repairs in Qaraqosh, Iraq. Photo by Kevin Clarke.

Speaking in Westminster Abbey at an ecumenical service on Dec. 4 “to celebrate the contribution of Christians in the Middle East,” Prince Charles recalled his “great joy” upon meeting Luma Khudher, a Dominican Sister of St. Catherine of Siena, in England in October. He described how as Isis extremists advanced on the Christian town of Qaraqosh in 2014, Sister Luma “got behind the wheel of a minibus crammed full of her fellow Christians and drove the long and dangerous road to safety.”

Now she has returned to the Nineveh Plains to help re-establish the Christian presence there. “Like the 100,000 other Christians who were forced from the Nineveh Plains...they left behind the ruins of their homes and churches and the shattered remnants of their communities,” he said.

Prince Charles said the return of Christians to Iraq represented “the most wonderful testament to the resilience of humanity and to the extraordinary power of faith to resist even the most brutal efforts to extinguish it.”

“The sister told me, movingly, of her return to Nineveh with her fellow sisters three years later, and of their despair at the utter destruction they found there,” he said. “But like so many others, they put their faith in God, and today the tide has turned—nearly half of those displaced having gone back to rebuild their homes and their communities.”

Prince Charles said the return of Christians to Iraq represented “the most wonderful testament to the resilience of humanity and to the extraordinary power of faith to resist even the most brutal efforts to extinguish it.”

The prince expressed his hope that Christians and Muslims will again live together in peace, saying that throughout history they have “shown that it is possible to live side by side as neighbors and friends.”

From Catholic News Service

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Katie Bell
5 years 3 months ago

Expose the perspective of the ability of believe in relying on without worry in God's help. With an open center to God, get a vision of hope through your eyes. Wish with believe in and don't doubt that God is with you walking by your side. In your complications, let the ability of your belief glow in your way getting you nearer to God and Our Mom Mary's graces as quoted at Coursework Writing Services . A prayer of believe in, it is a call from your center to all Incredible help. Believe with believe in and believe in in God always. May Our Mom Jane guide you to Christ and complete your center with believe in. May Angels light up your way with information of believe in to reach all the desires of your center come true.

Todd Witherell
5 years 3 months ago

The Fall of Baghdad by John Lee Anderson. Reviews are here on Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1042416.The_Fall_of_Baghdad

The book opens with this quote from D.H. Lawrence: The talk of freedom and democracy is more or less byplay and not to be taken seriously; the essential American soul is cold, hard, stoic, solitary, isolate, and a killer.

I recommend the book to look into the Heart of American (and British) Darkness. The utter terror of what George W. and Tony Blair did to the Iraqi people.

Todd Witherell
5 years 3 months ago

Dick Cheney in Vice, American evil
cold as ice, beyond retrieval
mass murder device,
hatred primeval

Todd Witherell
5 years 3 months ago

Dick Cheney in Vice, American evil
cold as ice, beyond retrieval
mass murder device,
hatred primeval

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