Pope to check out Mosul churches
In Mosul, adjacent to the Biblical city of Nineveh, four churches representing unique denominations occupy a small square surrounded by low-rise residences, testament to the purpose Iraq's once flourishing Christian community played.
Today, all churches are frequently damaged or destroyed after Islamic Status militants occupied the city from 2014-2017, desecrated most of the buildings and applied them to run its administration, including seeing as a jail and a good court. Air flow strikes as Iraqi forces tried to dislodge the extremist group in fierce fighting does the others. Those walls nonetheless standing will be scarred with bullet and shrapnel holes.
"It used to be a bit like the Jerusalem of the Nineveh plains," said Mosul and Akra's Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel of "Church Square", the name directed at the website that Pope Francis will check out about March 7 during his historic visit to Iraq. Michaeel fondly recalled how, prior to the U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians from diverse denominations would show up at each other's services on spiritual festivals.
Those days have died. Today one among Mosul's surviving churches presents a weekly Sunday service to a Christian population that has dwindled to simply a few dozen families from about 50,000 persons. Tolerated by ex - President Saddam Hussein but persecuted by al Qaeda and Islamic Talk about, Iraq's Christians number around 300,000, one fifth of the full total before 2003.
Some are trickling rear after Islamic State's defeat, but others still see little prospect in residing in Iraq and are seeking to settle overseas. A Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Chaldean Catholic church happen to be situated cheek-by-jowl around the dusty square. Nowadays the area is based on ruins, as carry out other parts of the city.The pope is due to carry prayers for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa, referred to as Church Square in English, as part of a four-day time trip starting on March 5, a visit Archbishop Michaeel referred to as highly symbolic and a note of hope.
