Victory for Christians

Richard A. Sokerka

This was a joyous Christmas season for
Christians in Iraq.

Just a day after Iraq celebrated the one-year anniversary of its victory over the Islamic State terrorist army, President Trump signed into law the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act (H.R. 390) Dec. 11. It’s designed to provide dedicated U.S. support directly to the Christian victims of ISIS’ campaign of genocide.

The bipartisan law, sponsored by Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) authorizes and directs the federal government to fund organizations, including faith-based groups that are on the ground providing Christian, Yazidi and other survivors targeted for extinction by ISIS the resources they need to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

It was in 2014 that ISIS marched into Iraq from Syria, conquering acre after acre of land for its self-declared “caliphate.” These terrorists inflicted untold atrocities on non-Sunni peoples under its control, devastating the small Christian and Yazidi communities. Iraqi forces liberated the Nineveh Plain and Mosul from ISIS, declaring victory last Dec. 10, and allowing Christians for the first time in four years to celebrate Christmas in the shattered city.

Since last year’s liberation, Christians have been returning slowly. But without the infusion of capital, the destruction inflicted by ISIS across northern Iraq, has hindered the pace of their repatriation. The population of Christians in Iraq is down to 200,000 from the 500,000 estimated in Iraq before ISIS.

Until this new law, the survival of Iraq’s indigenous Christian communities has relied upon an extended international network of Catholic charitable organizations, such as Aid to the Church in Need and the Knights of Columbus, who raised funds from their supporters and worked with the local Christian churches to help genocide survivors.

Aid to the Church in Need raised $100 million and helped jump-start the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee coordinating the restoration of their communities.

In Karamles, Christians celebrated the Nativity of the Lord in a beautiful new church, the Mar Addai Chaldean Catholic Church, thanks to the Knights of Columbus. The Knights dedicated themselves to rebuilding the town’s churches and homes.

Rep. Smith said he resolved to write H.R. 390 after visiting Erbil in 2016 where he saw firsthand the desperate situation of Christians who had been kept alive thanks to the local Church and Catholic aid organizations.

“We met all these people whose lives had been saved by the Knights of Columbus, Caritas, and Aid to the Church in Need,” he said.

The new law also directs the federal government to evaluate and address the humanitarian conditions that might force survivors to flee their homelands and identify the warning signs of violence against the communities that have survived genocide. The law also supports entities that will bring the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity to justice.

This new law is a godsend to these persecuted Christians, who steadfastly kept their faith despite the brutality of ISIS. May God bless them.