NOVEMBER 2020

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chaldean DIGEST What others are saying about Chaldeans PHOTO BY STEPHEN STARR Biden Courts Muslim Vote but Not All Back Him BY STEPHEN STARR Abu Steif’s restaurant in Sterling Heights, north of downtown Detroit, where there is a flourishing Arab-American community. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign has expended much effort reaching out to Muslim Americans, many of whom are of Arab origin. Metro Detroit has the largest Middle Eastern community in the U.S., and the community’s success in business has more recently translated to political clout on the national level. In 2018, Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim of Palestinian descent who represents several Detroit districts, was elected to the US Vandalism at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Diocese and Our Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church BY PHILLIP MOLNAR Two Catholic churches in East County, San Diego, California reported that they had been vandalized with swastikas and other phrases painted across their exteriors, sheriff’s officials said. St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Diocese in Rancho San Diego shared a video of the graffiti on its Facebook page Saturday morning, which had been shared more than 1,000 times by early afternoon. The vandalism included symbols and phrases of conflicting ideology: swastikas and pentagrams were painted alongside the phrases “white power,” “BLM” for Black Lives Matter and “Biden 2020.” The Nazi symbol, used to target Jewish people, was most prevalent. “It makes zero sense,” said Fr. Daniel Shaba of St. Peter. “As much as I’ve tried to logically piece it together, it just makes no sense to me.” “Right now, what we are telling the community to do is to pray for more peace in the House of Representatives. Tlaib was the first Muslim to enter the state legislature and the joint-first Muslim from an immigrant background elected to Congress, alongside Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. However, not all Arab Americans are likely to back Biden. Many, especially the almost 2 millionstrong Arab Christian community, could lean towards Trump due, in part, to his verbal promises to help Christians in Iraq. At a rally outside Detroit last January, the president singled out the community for praise. He said he would keep Michigan’s “wonderful Iraqi Christians”, referring to the threat of deportation facing hundreds of Christian immigrants from Iraq. For Abu Steif, who came to Michigan from Mosul in 2013, public comments like this mean a lot. A member of the Chaldean Catholic community, he runs a restaurant in the Sterling Heights district north of Detroit. He left the northern Iraqi city just months before it fell to Islamic State insurgents. “Donald Trump!” he exclaims, and is echoed by his co-workers within earshot, when asked who he would vote for on November 3rd. “He doesn’t like war; he doesn’t like interfering in other countries. In the past, America caused a lot of problems in the Arab world.” – IrishTimes.com The Sheriff’s Department is investigating graffiti on St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Diocese. world, first and foremost,” he said. “But, also the repentance of these people that decided to do this to the church.” – San Diego Union Tribune COURTESY OF ST. PETER CHALDEAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE CNS PHOTO/KAWA OMAR, REUTERS Women mourn the death of a man who was killed in a Turkish airstrike in late June in Sheladize, Iraq. Priests say Turkish attacks in northern Iraq displace Christians BY DALE GAVLAK AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) — Iraqi Christian priests warn that the latest Turkish military attacks in northern Iraq are displacing Christians and exacerbating a precarious security situation. “Already Christian villagers had to escape their homes because of Turkish military assaults last year on the pretext that those forces were attacking the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) fighters,” Father Emanuel Youkhana told Catholic News Service by phone. Father Youkhana, a priest, or archimandrite, of the Assyrian Church of the East, runs Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq. CAPNI aids Iraqi Christians and Yazidis uprooted by Islamic State militants as well as Syrian Christians and Kurds who escaped to northern Iraq due to Turkey’s military invasion of northeastern Syria. Father Samir Yousef, a Chaldean Catholic parish priest in the Diocese of Amadiyah, said the areas where he serves “have been bombed with greater intensity. Families have been forced to flee their homes to escape these attacks.” Other Christians hoping to return to their hometowns on the Ninevah Plain following the area’s 2014 takeover by Islamic State militants are also facing challenges, said Father Youkhana. CAPNI and other humanitarian organizations as well as the Catholic Church are helping to rebuild the communities’ lives, their homes, schools and businesses burned and destroyed by the militants, who also laid land mines in the area. Only 45% of the original Christian community has returned to the Ninevah Plain, according to Aid to the Church in Need. The Catholic group’s recent report said there were 102,000 Christians living there in 2014, but their numbers have dwindled to 36,000 and could plummet even further by 2024. – Catholic News Service 10 CHALDEAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2020
Franklin Cider Mill Wameedh Khalid Francis, 21, is one of 15 students attending St Peter’s Chaldean Seminary in Ankawa. Iraqi Seminarian speaks about becoming a priest BY SABAH PHOTO CREDIT ASIA NEWS Erbil (AsiaNews) – In the current context in Iraq and the world, the priestly and monastic vocations are “the pinnacle of love and service,” said Wameedh Khalid Francis, age 21, one of 15 students attending St. Peter’s Chaldean Seminary in Ankawa, the Christian neighborhood in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. Born in the village of Telskuf, he underwent a life-changing experience following the attack by the Islamic State group in the summer of 2014, which “destroyed everything,” he told AsiaNews. “In a dangerous context [caused by the jihadi advance], the priest did his utmost as an engineer and as the humblest of workers: people turned to him for everything. “In this situation, I understood the meaning of mission,” says Francis, “For this reason, I urge young people to undertake the loving service that our world needs today.” Recently, the Chaldean patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako Saving local newspapers squeezed by hedge funds BY STEVEN WALDMAN launched an appeal saying that the country and its Church need, “new vocations, both male and female”. Today Iraq is still in a critical situation due to sectarian violence and widespread corruption. The Christian community must struggle to keep its culture, presence and traditions alive despite the massive exodus of recent years. To his peers, male or female, Francis wants to show the beauty of priestly service and consecrated life. “Becoming a priest, a monk or a nun,” says the seminarian, “means living the Christian mission in its fullness.” This “involves total service, even if it has greater value and breadth for a priest or a consecrated person” than any other profession or lifestyle. “To you, Christians and peoples of the West, I ask you not to forget us, and to always pray for us, that peace may reign throughout the East, so that Christians can finally live in peace in their land.” – Ankawa.com National Historic Site Since 1832 Voted Best Apple Cider Mill 2020 New Online Ordering Options! Pre-Pay Pick-up & Grub Hub www.franklincidermill.com Following CDC & Michigan Safe Guidelines Order Your Thanksgiving Pies Today! 248.626.8262 Open Thanksgiving Day 8 - 12 noon Open NOW -> November 29th 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM DAILY 7450 Franklin Road 14 Mile Road & Franklin Road 1 Mile West of Telegraph Phone: 248.626.8261 The conversation about the crisis in local news has tended to focus on two solutions: helping create local news startups and supporting local newspapers still in existence. Each approach has limitations and promise. Birthing nonprofit news organizations is critically important and valuable, but so far there are far too few (around 300), and their scale is small. Could some of the 6,700 privately owned newspapers be transformed into more community-grounded institutions? Just as sickly plants can sometimes gain new life by being watered and repotted in healthier soil, could changing their ownership structures and sources of nourishment revive some dying newspapers? Stakeholders in a community could join together to create a new entity. Perhaps this would be driven and financed initially by one of the 750 community or placebased foundations in the country. In Michigan, the Chaldean Community Foundation purchased the local newspaper, The Chaldean News. They’re pledging to convert it to a digital property and invest more in local reporting. – PopularResistance.org Same Great Fresh Cider & Warm Donuts Slushes & Caramel Apples Best In-Season Michigan Apples Your Favorite Michigan Made Products • Maple Syrup • Jams • Honey • Cheeses • Meats • • Chows • Salsas • Dressings • Apple Sauce • NOVEMBER 2020 CHALDEAN NEWS 11
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Page 12 and 13: chaldean DIGEST What others are say
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Page 16 and 17: in MEMORIAM RECENTLY DECEASED COMMU
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Page 28 and 29: CULTURE & history Purple Heart Awar
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NOVEMBER 2020

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