POPE FRANCIS, THE FIRST POPE EVER VISITED THE BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM (IRAQ)

Pope Francis Arrival in Baghdad, Iraq

 

 Sunday Mass

 

 Pope Francis in Qaraqosh, Iraq

 

 Welcome in Erbil, Iraq

 

 Meeting with Bishops

 

 Inter-religious Meeting in Ur, Iraq, the birthplace of Abraham, our Father in Faith

 

 Mosul, Prayer Suffrage

 

 Pope, prayer for victims of war

POPE FRANCIS: APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO IRAQ

The first visit of the Holy Father to Iraq, the homeland of our patriarch Abraham. His much-awaited journey is sure to bring consolation and hope to the many Iraqi Christians. Watch the LIVE coverage of this Apostolic journey on your Shalom World.

AP News: First mass in two years held in Iraq’s main Christian town

Published October 31, 2016 8:06am
By THIBAULD MALTERRE AND SAFA MAJEED, Agence France-Presse via GMA Network

In spite of church being burnt out, Mosul Archbishop Putrus Moshe defiantly leads the Sunday Mass in the Grand Immaculate church in Baghdeda for the first time in two years after this church was liberated from ISIS last week. Photo Source: This is Christian Iraq

QARAQOSH, Iraq - A handful of faithful gathered in a burnt out church Sunday for the first mass to be celebrated in two years in Qaraqosh, which was once Iraq's main Christian town.

Iraqi forces retook Qaraqosh from the Islamic State group days earlier, as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country's second city Mosul.

"After two years and three months in exile, I just celebrated the Eucharist in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception the Islamic State wanted to destroy," Yohanna Petros Mouche, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, said.

"But in my heart it was always there," Mouche, who officiated with four priests, told AFP.

IS jihadists took over swathes of Iraq in June 2014, also taking Mosul where the prelate was based.

He moved to Qaraqosh, a town with a mostly Christian population of around 50,000 that was controlled by Kurdish forces and lies east of Mosul in the Nineveh plain.

But a second jihadist sweep towards Kurdish-controlled areas two months later forced around 120,000 Iraqi Christians and members of other minorities to leave their towns and villages.

"We had no other choice but to convert or become slaves. We fled to preserve our faith. Now we're going to need international protection," Father Majeed Hazem said.

Donning a resplendent chasuble and stole, Mouche led mass on an improvised altar in front of a modest congregation mostly made up of members of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), a local Christian militia.

‘Damaged but still standing’

"I can't describe what I'm feeling. This is my land, my church," said Samer Shabaoun, a militiaman who was involved in operations to retake Qaraqosh.

"They used everything against us: they shot at us, they sent car bombs, suicide attackers. Despite all this, we're here."

Shortly before Sunday's mass, the soldiers now guarding Qaraqosh were surprised to find two elderly women in a house, one of them bedridden.

"We stayed the whole of the occupation by the Islamic State, from the first day. Sometimes they would bring us food," one of them said.

The bell tower of the church was damaged, statues decapitated and missals strewn across the nave floor, which is still covered in soot from the fire the jihadists lit when they retreated.

But some of the crosses have already been replaced and a new icon was laid on the main altar, where the armed militiamen took turns to light candles.

"This church is such a powerful symbol that if we hadn't found it like this, damaged but still standing, I'm not sure residents would have wanted to come back," Mouche said.

Christmas in Mosul?

"But the fact that it's still here gives us hope," the blue-eyed prelate, who wears thin-rimmed glasses and sports a neatly trimmed white goatee, said as he surveyed the damage in Qaraqosh after mass.

It could be months before former residents return to a town that needs to be cleared of explosive devices left behind by IS and whose infrastructure suffered badly.

The seminary library was completely burnt down and the ashes were still warm.

"This is barely a few days old—the jihadists torched it when soldiers started entering the town," Mouche said.

In the course of his visit to Qaraqosh, the archbishop recited ritual phrases to "purify" various buildings, holding a cross in one hand and swinging a thurible of incense with the other.

Jihadists appear to have used the cloister-like back yard of the cathedral for target practice.

The ground was littered with casings, the pillars riddled with bullet impacts and IS instructors even left behind a board detailing the workings of a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The Iraqi offensive on Mosul launched two weeks ago has yet to reach the city borders, and commanders have warned it could last months but Mouche was optimistic: "I hope to celebrate a Christmas mass in Mosul cathedral." —Agence France-Presse

Church Bells are Ringing Again in Iraq!

We are always a joyful Church!

RECLAIMING NINEVEH FOR CHRIST!

CNA: The ‘people of the cross’ are taking back Iraq

Source: Catholic News Agency
On 10.26.16,  by Mary Rezac+

Mass at a refugee camp in Baghdad. Thousands of Iraqi Christians have been killed or forced to flee their homes after the rise of the Islamic State. Credit: Amigos de Irak via Facebook.

The cross of Jesus is being lifted once more over many parts of Iraq, where for years Islamic State terrorists left a path of death and destruction.

As a military campaign to rid the Mosul area of the Islamic state rages on, videos are surfacing of “the people of the cross” reclaiming their homes by raising makeshift wooden crosses over the churches and towns they were once forced to flee out of fear for their lives.

The “people of the cross” was the term for Christians used by Islamic terrorists when they beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians in February 2015.

According to many reports, the Islamic State has a special hate for the symbol of the cross, which many say points to the religious motivations of their actions. According to a journalist for Ankawa news agency, within two weeks of seizing Mosul, the Islamic State terrorists threw down all the crosses from domes of churches in the city. They also raided the houses of Christian living in Mosul in order to destroy all the crosses and icons.

The breaking of the cross is symbolic of what many Muslims believe will happen at the end times. Muhammad prophesied that when Isa (the Muslim Jesus) returns, he will “fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill the swine and abolish jizya” and establish the rule of Allah throughout the world.

But after years of broken crosses throughout Christian towns near Mosul, Iraq, the symbol of Jesus’ triumph over death is returning.

Yesterday, “This is Christian Iraq” Facebook page posted a video of two priests and members of the Iraq military elevating a cross made of two wooden poles and copper wiring on top of Al-Tahira Church in Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town.

Al-Tahira Church (The Church of the Immaculate Conception) is a Chaldean Catholic Church dating back to the 7th century. In 2014, some sources reported that ISIS terrorists destroyed a Virgin Mary statue outside this Church. Since then, most of the other icons and sacramentals inside the church have been destroyed, the interior of the Church burned, the windows smashed.

But now, there is hope again that the 50,000 some Christians who were forced to leave Qaraqosh may return.

“I’m very happy now that we are able to return to our church,” Father Amar, one of the priests who erected the new cross, told The Daily Beast.

But hope mingles with sorrow at the ruin of so many churches and Christian symbols.

“Its very hard for us to see our town like this. Everything is damaged. Do you see that the bell of the church is missing? They destroyed it. Why? I don’t know,” he said.

A second video, from France 24, shows the liberation of Bartella, a Christian village close to Mosul. In an emotional and symbolic gesture of their return, they too made a makeshift cross of wooden beams and raised it on top of their church.

On the church’s walls below, Islamic State graffiti read: “Our God is higher than the cross.”

A captain with the Iraqi army told International Business Times that the fight to take back Bartella was more difficult than some of the other fights to free nearby towns, perhaps because of the town’s religious significance.

A few days ago, church bells rang out in the town for the first time in two years since the Islamic State takeover. [Read: Church bells ring for first time in 2 years after Iraqi forces liberate Christian town of Bartella en route to Mosul http://abcnews.ws/2eloz3Tl]

Christian persecution has been happening in Iraq since the spread of Islamic terror and the U.S. invasion in 2003, and picked up in intensity with the rise of the Islamic State in 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been killed or forced to flee their homes, and the population of Christians – which was about 1.5 million in 2003 – is about a third of what it used to be, with approximately 500,000 Christians remaining.

And while the battle for Mosul has been liberating Christian towns, it has not been without cost.

The United Nations warned that ISIS is using civilians as human shields in the fight for Mosul, estimating that the militants have so far taken roughly 550 families from smaller towns close to Mosul in an effort to prevent them from leaving the area.

According to CNN, some 285 men and boys have already been used by ISIS as human shields in recent days, and their bodies dumped in a mass grave.

In a statement earlier this week, Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, stressed that liberating Mosul and the Nineveh plain are not enough. In addition, aid must be offered to ensure the survival of groups that ISIS had been trying to exterminate.

The Knights of Columbus have been heavily involved in supporting persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Earlier this year the Catholic fraternal group successfully advocated for the State Department to recognize the genocide of religious minorities at the hands of ISIS.

In 2014, the Knights established the Christian Refugee Relief Fund, which has raised $10.5 million to provide food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical care to persecuted Christians in the Middle East. They have also encouraged prayer for those facing persecution.

“Celebrations over the ongoing liberation of the historically Christian towns of the Nineveh, should not obscure the fact those minority groups who lived there for generations are now displaced and in danger of disappearing,” Anderson said in his statement.

Donations can be made to help the victims of Christian genocide in the Middle East at: http://www.kofc.org/en/charities/christian-relief/

CNA: Iraqis hopeful in battle for Mosul, yet cautious of what lies ahead

By Elise Harris for Catholic News Agency
Posted October 17, 2016

An Iraqi woman holding a rosary. Credit: Elise Harris/CNA.

Erbil, Iraq (CNA/EWTN News).- Hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced a ground offensive to retake Mosul from the clutches of Islamic State, a priest working in the thick of the country’s refugee crisis said people are happy with the advances, but unsure what the future will hold.

“We are so happy because yesterday the war began between the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga with ISIS,” Father Roni Momika told CNA Oct. 17.

He relayed how shortly before, they had received the “good news” that the ancient Monastery of the Martyrs Saint Behnam and his Sister Sarah, also known as the Mar Behnam monastery, near Nimrud “is free,” though it has suffered significant damage from Islamic State forces.

There are still many Christians living in the villages surrounding Mosul, he noted, but said soldiers from the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga are with them.

“We hope that (soon) we will hear good news about Qaraqosh, a big center for Christians, that it will be free and that there is no ISIS there,” he said, but admitted that it might not be that easy.

Fr. Momika is a Syriac Catholic priest serving in the Kurdish capital of Erbil, where he works in the city’s Aishty camp for the displaced.

He and his sister were among the victims wounded in a 2010 bombing of buses transporting mainly Christian college students from the Plains of Nineveh to the University of Mosul, where they were enrolled in classes.

In 2014, while he was in seminary, Momika and his family were forced to flee Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida, when Islamic State militants attacked, taking over the city after storming it in the middle of the night with bombs and gunfire.

Since his seminary was closed following Islamic State's assault, he completed his studies in Lebanon, and returned to Iraq for his diaconate ordination, which took place March 19. On Aug. 5 he was ordained a priest in the Aishty camp, where he continues to serve the people by leading women's groups and working with youth.

Aleteia: Despite threat from ISIS, 100 children receive First Communion in Iraq

AUGUST 21, 2016 POSTED BY ALETEIA
Details:

The first communion Mass in Alqosh was an historic moment for a “frontier town” that has been under threat from the militants of the Islamic State (IS) for a long time. Now it can “hope for peace and normalcy” around these hundred children, said Mgr Basil Yaldo, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad and close associate of the Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako.

The Chaldean primate presided over the ceremony that was attended by “all the priests of the city, the nuns and more than 700 people. The faithful were excited because for the first time, the patriarch celebrated communions in the community.”

Like many other towns in Iraqi Kurdistan, Alqosh too welcomed scores of refugees.

“Life in the area is almost back to normal,” said the vicar of Baghdad. “We hope that soon the whole plain [of Nineveh] can be liberated from the jihadists, and that refugees can return to their villages.”

The work to secure the area, he added, has “already started and for the past two days Iraqi troops have launched the battle to liberate the villages surrounding Mosul.”

…Addressing the boys and girls who received the first communion, Patriarch Sako urged them not to abandon their land, the city of Alqosh, but to stay and help in the reconstruction “because there is a (Christian) heritage to be preserved. ”

The Chaldean primate, Mgr Yaldo noted, also called on young people to “be stronger, come to church and participate in the life of the Christian community as one participates in the life of a family.”

After the service, the children asked Patriarch Sako some questions. One of them, Mgr Yaldo noted, said that when he “grows up he wants to become a priest to serve the poor and the needy.”

The patriarch could not hold back his emotion after listening to such words, adding that “it is important to support and share the suffering.”

Read it all. God bless every one of them and keep them safe.

CNA: New Iraqi priests bring joy amid years of sadness, displacement

By Elise Harris

Roni Salim Momika is ordained a priest in Erbil's Aishty camp for the displaced Aug. 5, 2016. Courtesy of Fr. Roni Momika.

Erbil, Iraq, Aug 8, 2016 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Roni Salim Momika, one of three priests ordained in an Erbil refugee camp Friday, said the event has turned the dreary mood of displaced Christians into one of joy, which he hopes will give them the strength to stay in their homeland.

“My feeling is happy, happy!” Fr. Momika told CNA after his Aug. 5 ordination, adding that he feels “something inside” that makes him deeply joyful.

He was ordained a priest of the Syriac-Catholic Church alongside his friends and fellow deacons Emad and Petros in the large, prefabricated church inside Erbil’s Aishty 2 camp for the displaced, which is home to some 5,500 people forced to flee their homes due to ISIS.

The ordination, he said, “will give hope to (the people)” in the camp, mostly Syriac Catholics from Qaraqosh, who for two years have been forced to live as refugees.

Fr. Momika, who is from Qaraqosh, noted how Aug. 6 marks the exact two-year anniversary since ISIS attacked his hometown, driving out inhabitants who didn’t meet their demands to convert to Islam, pay a hefty tax or face death.

“We left Qaraqosh during this time two years ago,” he said, explaining that it’s been “a time of challenge” and “a time of sadness” for the Christians.

However, while the anniversary could serve as a reminder of the bleak and uncertain reality for Christians in Iraq, the sight of three young men being ordained to the priesthood has instead made it “a happy time, a hopeful time, and a good time,” Fr. Momika said.

“Before it was a bad day because we became refuges and ISIS entered to Qaraqosh, but now this day became a good day because it’s our ordination and we give hope to our people,” including the hope “to stay here,” he said.

Fr. Momika, Emad, Petros and another seminarian named Paul were all forced to flee Qaraqosh when ISIS attacked in 2014.

Before being forced to leave, Momika and his sister were among the victims wounded in a 2010 bombing of buses transporting mainly Christian college students from the Plains of Nineveh to the University of Mosul, where they were enrolled in classes.

Since the Qaraqosh seminary was closed following the 2014 attack, the then-seminarians were sent to finish their studies at the Al-Sharfa Seminary in Harissa, Lebanon. After completing their studies in Lebanon, they returned to Iraq for their deaconate ordination, which took place March 19.

Since then, Paul decided to serve in Baghdad, and was ordained there roughly 20 days ago, while Fr. Momika and the others were ordained in Erbil.

Archbishop Yohanno Petros Moshe, Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan, the priests’ bishop, was the one who celebrated their ordination Mass in the Aishty camp.

Fr. Momika, whose family fled to Erbil after leaving Qaraqosh, said that while the church only has a capacity of about 800 people, about 1,500 showed up for the ordination.

Several of his family members were able to come for the ordination, including his father, sister and many others who traveled from Baghdad, Aqrah and other cities to be there.

Until now Fr. Momika has worked with the youth and led the women’s groups inside Erbil’s refugee camps. The priest said that for now he will remain in Erbil and continue to serve in that capacity, but it’s up to Archbishop Moshe to decide “if I will stay here or not” in the long run.

As a newly ordained priest surrounded by violent persecution, Fr. Momika said that he wants “to stand with the refugees” despite the “the danger (in their) lives.”

He said he wants to give the Christians “power, hope, and courage to continue their lives and stay with the poor people” and those who are suffering, adding that for him, the essence of his role and vocation is “to give Christ to the people.”

First Communicant Iraqi Children singing The Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, the native language of Jesus Christ!

THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS!

NOTHING SEPARATES US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD! AMEN!

Source: Facebook Account

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." -ROMANS 8:38-39

Iraqi Christians Story on How they Escaped Muslim Terrorists

Against Muslim Terrorists called Deash (ISIS): Arab Christians Thank President Vladimir Puttin of Russia and the Syrian Government! Obama is the greatest threat for Arab Christians!

While Christians from the "free world" are arguing whose doctrines are genuine, here in the land where Christianity was born, our Christian brethren are fighting for this faith we just taken for granted. While Protestants argue that the Catholic Church had deviated from the True Faith, here are the Catholics and other Christian orthodox churches coming together as one believer in Christ Jesus. [Photo Source: Chaldean Nation Facebook Page or visit their website Chaldean Nation]

Raising the Christian Cross and the name of Lord Jesus Christ in Maaloula, Syria.

The ancient Syrian Christian town restores our Christian Cross and the Virgin Mary statue on top of the Mountain overlooking the beautiful city of Chaldean, Armenian and Syriac Christians. Maaloula celebrates with the Syrian government officials, banner of President Assad, as monument destroyed by rebels replaced.

Located north of Damascus, Maaloula is one of the world’s oldest Christian settlements, and its inhabitants still speak Aramaic and Chaldean, the language of Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you Syrian Army and citizens including our Chaldean and Syriac Christian armies that librated the city from the criminals of Muslim terrorists also called Deash (ISIS).

Long Live the Syrian People!

Restoring the Virgin Mary statue, The Lady of Peace in Maaloula, Syria. This is a Christian city and will stay a Christian city forever!

Thank you Syria! Thank you Syrian and Christian armies. Thank you President Assad and Thank you President Vladimir Putin.

The ancient Syrian Christian town restores the Virgin Mary statue, The Lady of Peace on top of the Mountain overlooking the beautiful city of Chaldean, Armenian and Syriac Christians. Maaloula celebrates with the Syrian government officials, banner of President Assad, as monument destroyed by rebels replaced.

Located north of Damascus, Maaloula is one of the world’s oldest Christian settlements, and its inhabitants still speak Aramaic and Chaldean, the language of Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you Syrian Army and citizens including our Chaldean and Syriac Christian armies that librated the city from the criminals of Muslim terrorists also called Deash (ISIS).

Long Live the Syrian People!

#ChaldeanNation #Chaldean #Syriac #Armenian #Syria #Iraq #Mesopotamia

MR. MARK ARABO: National Spokesman for Chaldean Community, A Modern Hero! Fighting for Christians in the Middle East!

We keep in our prayers all those Arab Christians / Chaldean Christians who are persecuted by Muslims in the Middle East just because of their faith.

#MarkArabo #iLoveChaldeans #ArabChristians #SaveArabChristians #ChristianPersecution #ChristiansintheMiddleEast

ZENIT.org: Pope Meets With Iraqi Parish Priest Who Receives Refugees in Kurdistan

At End of General Audience, Father Samir Yousif Showed Pope Album Documenting Atrocities of the War

Vatican City, August 27, 2015 (ZENIT.org)

Immediately after Wednesday's general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis met an Iraqi priest committed to helping refugees.

After attending the audience in a front row space reserved for him, Father Samir Yousif, Iraqi Chaldean priest providing pastoral care in Kurdistan, approached the Pope to show him an album of photographs that document the “apocalyptic catastrophe” of his land, reported L'Osservatore Romano.

The priest serves the parish of Amadiyak, on the border with Turkey.

Refugees arrive in his community without clothes or documents, "fleeing from certain death," the priest explained. Given this, he stressed that, “in an instant, roots that date back to the first Christian century are wiped away because in those areas we Christians are neither guests nor foreigners,” Father Samir said.

The Iraqi parish priest then expressed his gratitude to all those who are supporting the refugees in his area: from Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pope's personal envoy to Iraq, to the Italian Episcopal Conference and Caritas. In particular, Father Samir thanked the Pope “for his interventions addressed to the international community: his voice, he can be certain, is much listened throughout the Arab world.”

“When Pope Francis speaks of the tragedy of the refugees," the priest noted, "the media gives him ample space and this helps us to finally find solidarity, rather than fall into oblivion.”

Father Samir said he does not lose hope "for a future of peace, reconciliation and justice, despite everything.” Explaining that among those he receives, there are Muslims, the priest underscored, “The madness of ISIS is only blind violence and it cannot win.”

At this moment of terrible trial, “the Chaldean Church is alive, and even stronger and more united, today, because of the harsh trial it is going through,” he said.

Father Samir expressed his hope that in the near future, Pope Francis would meet with his archdiocese's people, "to confirm us in the faith and encourage us not to be afraid.”

Time to Roll-up our sleeves for the Crusades!

Just as how the first Crusades were initiated, we need another Crusades to drive out the soldiers of Satan from advancing in our lands killing all our men and raping our women.  Christ battled with Satan so must we battle with his minions-- the Muslim terrorists!

hristian militia that is now rising in Iraq to attack ISIS, all wearing wooden crosses.

Hundreds Of Christians Form A Huge Militia And Are Now About To Attack ISIS And They Will Continue To Attack ISIS Until They Retake Their Homes And Towns And Until They Retake The Whole City Of Mosul

By Ted on July 2, 2015 in Featured, General

By Theodore Shoebat

A large and valiant militia, consisting of hundreds of Christians, has been formed to fight against the Islamic persecution and invasion of Christian lands in Iraq. They number in the dozens, they adorn themselves with crosses hanging from their necks, they have denied the self, they are filled with contrition, they are ready to fight the enemies of God, their hearts are prepared to endure holy war, their minds are set on the precepts of Heaven, their very beings are taken by the Word of God, “piercing even to the division of soul and spirit” (Hebrews 4:12). They call themselves the “Ketaeb Babylon.”

According to another Ketaeb Babylon commander, there are “hundreds of Christian fighters located now in various areas of Salaheddin… in addition to others responsible for protecting churches in Baghdad province.” As hundreds have already been recruited, the numbers of volunteers to “fight the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization” is continuing, he said.

They hang around their necks wooden crosses, just as the Crusaders of old did when — in the old relic of Christendom — the Christians placed the Cross on their chests and on their shoulders, beautifully manifesting the words of Christ: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34)

They are training to retake their homes that were captured by ISIS in areas in like Mosul which was captured last year. When the heretic Muslims overtook Christian neighborhood and areas, they were given the choice to convert, leave, pay the tax, or die. Most of them fled, but some wanted to fight back, and these are the men who are determined to take up the whip and the Cross, to strike the thieves of lives and those who prey upon souls, and drive them away from the holy Temple of God, that is, the Body of Christ, “the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19). In fact, the majority of the “Ketaeb Babylon” unit are from Mosul.

The militia trains in a military base near the Baghdad airport, and some Muslims are actually training them on how to use the AK-47, and how to utilize basic combat maneuvers. But this does not mean that they forget Christianity, for as they present themselves in their military parades, they cry out to the mother of our Hope, chanting Ya Mariam (Oh, Mary!).

Now, why would they do this? The wife of Ahasuerus, Esther, commanded the death of Haman, Jael, the mother of Barak, “blessed be she in her tent” (Judges 5:24), struck the head of Sisera with a nail, and Deborah exhorted Barak to fight the enemies of God, and Mary, whose Seed — Jesus Christ — shall bruise the head of the old serpent (Genesis 3:15), and whose image was hoisted above the ship in the Battle of Lepanto, when the Christians crushed the Muslims, told our Lord, “They have no wine.” (John 2:3)

And as Christ transformed the water to wine, ocean of peoples who are His enemies “shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation” and they shall be thrown “into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” (Revelation 14:19-20)

So as Mary was the one who requested more wine, so shall she be with Christ in the day when He makes the oceans of His enemies into blood. For the Scripture says, “the Lord my God will come, And all the saints with You.” (Zechariah 14:5) And the Apostle speaks of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Would not Mary be among the saints, and would she not — by her very actions and Faith — have a great position amongst the saints, having gathered so many treasures in Heaven? So then these Christian militants, as the Christian warriors of old, express their honor towards Mary, the mother of our Salvation.

One of the Christian soldiers, 17-year-old Chaldean Christian Frank Samir, made it every clear that this battle against the Muslim terrorists is a holy war:

"We heard that the Christians had an opportunity for jihad (holy war), and we all came and volunteered… Our children are dying; our Christian families were displaced. How do we ourselves accept that people say the Christians are not fighting? On the contrary, we want to fight everywhere"

Notice how they use the word “jihad.” Now, this does not mean that the Christians took a Muslim word, or that they adopted the Islamic concept of holy war. No. It is only another indication that the Muslims took the idea of holy war from Christianity, and applied it to themselves. The original jihad (or the idea of holy war or struggle against the enemies of God) was a Christian concept. Islam, being a Christian heresy, took this concept and gave it an Arabic word, and advanced their own heresy through the use of holy war. Christianity has holy war, but it is for righteousness. Islam has holy war, but it is for evil.

Fares Issa, aged 38, said:

"I did not hesitate to volunteer with my brothers to fight Daesh (ISIS) …I will continue fighting (them) until the liberation of Mosul and their expulsion from all the areas of Ira"

In their training center the Christians display a large Cross, and alongside the Cross are the words: “God is greatest” and “There is no god but God.”

There are nine training courses, and each course is two weeks. Rayan al-Kaldani, the secretary general of Ketaeb Babylon, said:

"The main aim of forming our forces is the liberation of Mosu… We took part in the operations to liberate the city of Tikrit and other operations, including Baiji, in Salaheddin provinc"

According to Kaldani, the Christian soldiers are under the command of Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, who is amongst the top commanders in the “Popular Mobilisation” forces, which consists mainly of Shiite fighters.

One commander who calls himself Hajji Ali, a leader of one of the Shiite units said that the training “focuses on close-quarters combat, unconventional warfare and war inside the cities. …Their eyes are on Mosul and the areas occupied by Daesh”.

The volunteers say Mosul is the main goal, but their fight is not limited to that city.

Mosul “is our first aim,” said 16-year-old Raymoun Salwan, who was displaced from the city.

But “I will continue to fight terrorism wherever it goes in Iraq and every place,” he said.

We have to prepare our minds and intellect for this spiritual war that we are in. This is why I made a 2-disk DVD series on teaching the warring spirit of the Christian Faith.

CLICK HERE TO GET OUR 2-DISK DVD SERIES ON CHRISTIAN MILITANCY AND CHRISTIAN WARFARE AND JOIN THE FIGHT TODAY!

THE REALITY OF CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION IN IRAQ AND SYRIA (where no member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo® dare to do mission or send it's paid ministers for spreading the "True church" eh!

While persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria by ISIS Muslims is condemned by Christians around the world, the Iglesia Ni Cristo® founded by Felix Manalo in July 27, 1914, condemn nor support the persecution.  For an INC™ member, persecution of non-INC™ members is considered a punishment for "belonging to Christian churches believing on the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ".  The killing of Catholics and non-Catholics who teach the Doctrine of the Trinity is a favor until Catholics and those Christians who believe in Christ are completely wiped out. IMO INC™ are ISIS sympathizers! The INC™ is one of the many persecutors of the True Church of Jesus Christ!

Just as how Muslims hated Christians for BELIEVING in the DIVINITY OF CHRIST, the IGLESIA NI CRISTO® hated Catholics with the same intensity as Muslim Terrorists around the world! So do not be surprised if the INC™ do not condemn ISIS persecution of Christians in Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Hindu State India.

English translations are mine...

PASUGO Disyembre 1965, p. 5:

“Kaninong Ministro kung ganyan ang mga Paring Katoliko? Mga Ministro ni Satanas na Diablo." [Whose ministers are the Catholic Priests? Ministers of Satan the Devil.]

PASUGO Oktubre 1959, p. 5:

“Mga magdaraya at anti-Cristo, ang mga nagtuturong si Cristo ay Dios." [Those who teach Jesus is God are deceivers and anti-Christ.]

PASUGO Agosto 1962, p. 9:

“Kaya ang tunay na anti-Cristo, ang mga Papa ng Iglesia Katolika Apostolika Romana. At ang tunay na ampon ng anti-Cristo ay ang mga Katoliko.”  [So the true anti-Christ are the Popes of the Roman  Catholic Apostolic Church.  And the true adopted (sons) of the anti-Christ are Catholics.] 

PASUGO Oktubre 1956, p. 1:

“Ang Iglesia ni Cristo ay nagdaos ng pamamahayag sa Lunsod ng Davao. Nagsalita roon si Kapatid na Felix Manalo at ang kasama niyang mga Ministro. Ipinahayag doon ng mga nagsalita na ang Iglesia Katolika Romana ay hindi itinatag ni Cristo kundi itinatag ng Diablo." [The Iglesia ni Cristo held an evangelization in Davao City.  Brother Felix Manalo had a speech there with his Ministers.  It was proclaimed there by the speakers that the Roman Catholic Church was not established by Christ but by the Devil.]

NOTE: Pasugo is the official magazine of the Iglesia Ni Cristo® published in the Philippines.

Watch the Video at c-span.org

Sister Diana Momeka, OP, gives testimony to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, on the plight of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq. Her testimony starts at about 11:30 of the recording. Originally posted from c-span.org which was posted at Vatican Radio - English (Facebook Page)

Sr. Donna Momeka, OP

Remarks. And sister diana, she'll push that button, that red button there for you. >> thank you. Thank you, chairman royce and distinguished members of the committee for inviting me today to share my views on ancient communities under attack. >> 

sister, i'm going to suggest yomove the microphone right in front there. Just project a little bit. Thank you. >> 

okay. Thank you. November 2009, a bomb was detonated at our convent in mosul. Five sisters were in the building at the time and they were lucky to have escaped unharmed. Our sister asked for protection from local civilization authorities, but the pleas went unanswered. As such, she had no choice but to move us. 

On june 10th, 2014, the so-called islamic state in iraq or syria, or isis, invaded the nineveh plain. Starting with the city of mosul, isis overran one city and town after another, giving the christians of the region three choices, convert to islam, pay tribute to isis, leave their cities, cities like mosul, with nothing more than the clothes on their back.  

As this horror suppressed through all of the nineveh plain, by all 6th, 2014, nineveh was empty of christians and sadly for the first time since the seventh century a.d., no church bells rang for mass in the nineveh plain. 

From june 2014 forward, more than 120,000 people found themselves displaced and homeless in the kurdistan region of iraq, leaving behind their heritage and all they had worked for over the centuries. This uprooting of everything that christians owned, body and soul, stripping away their humanity and dignity. 

To add insult to injury, the initiative is that iraqi and kurdish governments were at best modest and slow. Apart from allowing christians to enter the region, the kurdish government did not offer any aid either financial or material. I understand the great strain that these events have placed on baghdad and erbil. 

However, it has been almost a year and christian iraqi citizens are still in dire need for help. Many people spend days and weeks in the street before they found shelter in tents, schools, and homes. Thankfully the churches stepped forward and cared for displaced christians. 

Doing her very best to handle this disaster. Buildings were open to accommodate the people. Food and non-food items were provided to meet the immediate needs of the people and medical health services were also provided. Moreover, the church put out a call and many humanitarian organizations answered with aid for thousands of people in need. 

Presently, we are grateful for what has been done. With most people now sheltered in small containers or some homes, though better than living on the streets or abandoned buildings. These small units are few in number and are crowded with three families. Each with multiple people, often accommodated in one unit. 

This is, of course, increasing tension and conflict, even within the same family. There are many who say, why don't the christians just leave iraq and move to another country and be done with it? To this question, we would respond, why should we leave our country, what have we done? The christians of iraq are the first people of the land. 

You read about us in the old testament of the bible. Christianity came to iraq from the very earliest days, through the preaching of st. Thomas and others of the apostles and church elders. While our ancestors experienced all kinds of persecution, they built a culture that has served humanity for ages. 

We as christians do not want or deserve to leave or be forced out of our country any more than you would want to leave or be forced out of yours. But the current persecution that our community is facing is the most brutal in our history. 

Not only have we been robbed of our homes, property, and land, but our heritage is being destroyed as well. Isis has continued to demolish and bomb our churches, cultural artifacts and sacred places, like a fourth century monastery in mosul. Uprooted and forcefully displaced, we have realized that isis plans to evacuate the land of christians and wipe the earth clean of any evidence that we ever existed. 

This is human genocide. The only christians that remain in the nineveh plains are those who are held as hostages. To restore and build the christian community in iraq, the following needs our urgent. Helping us return. Coordinated efforts to rebuild what was destroyed through slaughter, and electrical supplies and buildings including our churches and monasteries. 

Incouraging enterprises that contribute to the building of iraq and interreligious dialogue.encouraging enterprises that contribute to the building of iraq and interreligious dialogue. This could be through school and academic projects. I am but one small person. A victim myself of isis, and all of its brutality. 

Coming here has been difficult for me. As a religious sister, i'm not comfortable with the media and so much attention. But i am here, and i am here to ask you, to implore you for the sake of our common humanity, to help us, stand with us, as we, as christians, have stood with all the people of the world and help us. 

We want nothing more than to go back to our lives. We want nothing more than to go home. Thank you and god bless

Persecuted Christians does not include the Iglesia Ni Cristo of Manalo (1914)! Remember them this Holy Week!

Please remember them this Holy Week!

PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ CELEBRATE PALM SUNDAY! NOW, THAT IS THE GENUINE CHRISTIAN FAITH!

Here's how Christians in the terrorized region of Iraq celebrate Palm Sunday. Thanks to my dear brother Aamer for providing me these faith-filled photos!

And please take time reading their plea and pray for the persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria!

"CHRISTIANITY MUST SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST, WHERE IT WAS BORN!"

This is what our cities and villages will look like when we are fully armed and are able to protect them with the appropriate weaponry to combat extreme terrorism. Some people ask me why should we need our own military units? It is evident, the minorities in Iraq and Syria have been persecuted to a point of near complete annihilation under other failed strategies. Therefore, arming them and giving them the ability and opportunity to survive against radicalism is the least we can do besides the internationally protected safe haven that we should immediately implement.

This is my grandmother's village of ***** [withheld for protection], Iraq on Palm Sunday. Now do you understand why it's so important to support our military units such as the NPU. We are unsure of when the sectarian violence will ever end, our population has dropped to such a dangerous amount that we can not risk it any further. We must be able to speak our Aramaic language, pray in our Aramaic prayers, attend church regularly, attend schools freely and walk on our own native lands we have inhabited for almost 7,000 years with absolutely no oppression by occupations and extremism especially as indigenous . Nineveh is the ancient capital of Assyria, we are not asking for a province that does not belong to us, we are the indigenous people of Iraq and that is not negotiable.

Humanity is saved by paying close attention to the original care takers of Iraq and Syria, the true homeowners who built the foundation of Iraq. The Assyrian Christians including our Chaldean and Syriac churches are the cradlers of civilization and we demand an internationally protected safe haven of the Nineveh Province with highly advanced weaponry to combat highly funded and large terrorist militias.