AUGUST 2022

CHALDEAN DIGEST
Janan Shaker Elias looks at a book in the library she created.
Young Christians support the reopening
of libraries and bookstores in Mosul and
in the Nineveh Plain
In Mosul and in the Nineveh Plain, the network
of libraries and bookshops has paid a
high price due to the jihadist occupation and
the military interventions that have devastated
it. In the years from 2014 to 2017, many
bookstores were forcibly closed, libraries of
historical value were destroyed, and collections
of ancient books and manuscripts were
taken away to save them from looting and devastation.
Now, among the signs of the “new
beginning” of social and community life in
that region of Iraq is also the reopening of libraries,
bookstores, and cultural centers.
In the village of Sirishka, in the district of
The Chaldean Community Foundation (CCF) in
Sterling Heights was among the organizations
awarded a grant from the United Way of Southeastern
Michigan. It was part of the second round
of funding for Black, Indigenous, and People of
Color (BIPOC) groups that work toward eliminating
racial disparities in pursuit of a more equitable
and just community for everyone.
Alqosh, north-east of Mosul, the interest of the
local population is growing around the initiative
of Janan Shaker Elias, a young woman who
opened a private library which soon became a
center for cultural meetings and exchanges.
The site offers almost 2,000 free reference
volumes (a number that is slowly but steadily
increasing), divided by genres and disciplines,
and also functions as a reservation center for
books for purchase. The library addresses concerns
of young Christians about the role that
libraries and bookshops play in the resumption
of civil coexistence in the Iraqi region.
– Agenzia Fides
Chaldean Community Foundation
awarded United Way grant
The grant received by CCF and eight other organizations
range between $10,000 and $75,000.
The fund was designed by a diverse and inclusive
workgroup of community members during the
summer and fall of 2021. The objective of the fund
is to empower those most harmed by systemic oppression
to thrive and reach their full potential.
– Macomb Daily
PHOTO COURTESY SYRIACPRESS.COM
Kurdistan is
first choice for
Christians
The Kurdistan Region remains the
“first choice” destination of Iraq’s
dwindling Christian population,
according to Archbishop Bashar
Matti Warda, who made the remark
in a discussion about the ongoing
dangers faced by Iraqi Christians.
Noting that the Kurdistan Region
Fr. Ragheed Ganni,
Irish martyr?
Former president of Ireland,
Mary McAleese, suggested
that Iraqi priest, Fr. Ragheed
Ganni, a Chaldean Catholic
who was killed along with
three sub deacons in 2007,
should be considered an adopted
Irish martyr because
of his links with Ireland. She
remembered meeting him on
a pilgrimage on Lough Derg
and later begging the young
priest not to return to Iraq but
to stay in the safety of Rome.
“But no, he had to go
Archbishop Bashar
Matti Warda
had become a haven for the minority after its population rapidly
decreased in post-2003 Iraq, he said many of these Christians
resettled in the villages of Zakho and Duhok and Erbil’s
Christian-majority Ankawa district.
While there is no official tally on the current number of
Christians in Iraq, it’s believed that the total number is less
than 250,000. Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani
said his government spends over $1 billion annually on
services for displaced people living in the camps of the Kurdistan
Region.
– Kurdistan 24
Chaldean Father Ragheed
Aziz Ganni, killed along
with three subdeacons from
Church of the Holy Spirit in
Mosul, Iraq in 2007 while
leaving Mass.
home,” she recalled. “People needed Mass, the sacraments,
burials, marriages, Confession. They needed a priest.”
Kidnapped and tortured coming out of Trinity Sunday
Mass on June 3 in 2007, Fr. Ganni is remembered in the pantheon
of Irish martyrs celebrated in the magnificent mosaic
work of Marko Rupnik, SJ, in the apse of the chapel of the
Pontifical Irish College in Rome where he had been a student.
“He did not seek martyrdom,” said McAleese. “It found
him as he knew it might, and he lit a candle in the dark of
violence with the light of his life. His priestly stole now surrounds
the relics of Saint Oliver Plunkett and rests on the altar
in the Irish College. The cause for his beatification and
canonization has opened in Rome.”
– The Table
CHALDEAN ARCHDIOCESE OF ERBIL
PHOTO COURTESY CNS/ASIANEWS
14 CHALDEAN NEWS AUGUST 2022