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As new altar is consecrated at destroyed Iraq church, former parishioner recalls ‘wonderful days’

Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako presides over the dedication ceremony of the altar of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Mosul, Iraq. April 5, 2024. / Credit: Fadi Dinkha/ACI Mena

CNA Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church was consecrated earlier this month in Mosul, Iraq, a former parishioner now living in the United States said she was moved to tears.

“My eyes were filled with tears as I watched my church and my school return to the beautiful picture engraved in my memory,” said Georgena Habbaba, who used to attend the parish and study at the parish school with her brothers. Her own children studied there, too, before the family had to flee Mosul amid worsening violence in 2007. (Note: Habbaba also writes for ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.)

“I remembered the wonderful days I spent studying at this school and praying in this church. Very close to my family’s house,” she told CNA.

Georgena Habbaba pictured circa 1985 in the front kneeling, third from the left, with her school scout team at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic School in Mosul, Iraq. Habbaba, who now lives in the United States, said her memories of her childhood days at the school and parish are "wonderful." Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba
Georgena Habbaba pictured circa 1985 in the front kneeling, third from the left, with her school scout team at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic School in Mosul, Iraq. Habbaba, who now lives in the United States, said her memories of her childhood days at the school and parish are “wonderful.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba

Habbaba remembers how all the statues, as well as the altar and everything in the church, were destroyed by ISIS. “I especially missed the statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help above the altar,” she said.

On April 5, Chaldean patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako presided at a Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and consecrated the altar, expressing his happiness at its reconstruction. He said it “gives hope for a safe and better future for the people of this city.”

“It is a distinguished achievement that may encourage Christians to return to their dear city and contribute to building confidence, promoting harmonious coexistence, and preserving the fabric of Mosul,” he added.

In his comments, Sako also recalled when the foundation stone for the church was laid in 1944 and the construction of the school was finished in 1946.

“It is a great spiritual and cultural joy that we celebrate today the restoration of the opening of this great religious and educational edifice,” he told ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner. The school has also been completely reconstructed.

Habbaba recalled that when the school first opened, it was directed by Chaldean nuns. “The school and the church owe a lot to the nuns,” she said.

A photo of a Chaldean Catholic nun with school children circa 1985. Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba
A photo of a Chaldean Catholic nun with school children circa 1985. Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba

Habbaba also recalled that the school was a mixture of Christians and Muslims without discrimination, ”although the numbers of Christians decreased beginning in 2003 until the school in its last days before the occupation of ISIS in 2014 was almost free of Christian students.”

Before 2003, Christians in Iraq numbered nearly 2 million. Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, had nearly half a million Christians. Today, Iraqi Christians number fewer than 200,000, though a lack of official statistics makes it difficult to know for sure. Christians are returning to Mosul but so far in small numbers.

Georgena Habbaba on her wedding day in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, on Oct. 14, 1998. Habbaba, who now lives in the United States, said her eyes filled with tears when she recently saw photos of her home parish and school rebuilt and consecrated. Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba
Georgena Habbaba on her wedding day in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, on Oct. 14, 1998. Habbaba, who now lives in the United States, said her eyes filled with tears when she recently saw photos of her home parish and school rebuilt and consecrated. Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba

The most prominent pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was Father Faraj Rahho, who became the archbishop of Mosul and was kidnapped and martyred by terrorists in 2008. Sako, the current patriarch, also spent 15 years as pastor of the parish.

Also present at the special Mass on April 5 was Bishop Najib Mikhail, the pastor of the Chaldean Diocese of Mosul, who thanked the French donors, the SOS organization, and all those responsible for accomplishing the restoration work. The church was rebuilt according to its original architecture and building materials, despite difficult circumstances.

Earlier this year, ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language partner, reported on another Catholic church in Mosul that was recently restored. The Dominican Church of Our Lady of the Hour was completely restored after destruction by Islamic State terrorists 10 years ago.

ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, contributed to this story.


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14 Comments

  1. Christianity thrived in Iraq prior to the two US led wars against Saddam Hussein the first, the 1990 Gulf War, the 2nd the Invasion of Iraq under order of G W Bush, a war waged on allegation of Iraq’s possession of nuclear weapons, weapons that UN inspector general International Atomic Energy Agency Hans Blix Sweden insisted were not present, and were never found.
    Iraq Deputy PM Tariq Aziz, a Catholic, had appealed to Pope John Paul II to exert his influence to prevent an invasion by the US against a weakened virtually helpless Iraq. John Paul was against both Iraq wars, particularly the 2nd. Destruction of Iraq and Hussein’s secular Bath Party opened the door for the creation of ISIS, initially former radicalized Iraq military. The war also ended the balance of power that kept Iran contained, and opened the way for Iran to assume nuclear capability, finances to promote Islamic terrorism.
    War is not a Christ inspired policy. Nor is the war in Ukraine, a war that has had instigation and preparation for war with Russia by outside interests seeking to permanently weaken Russia. Pope Francis may not be right on many issues, however on the war in Ukraine, he had sense enough to see that Russia was provoked. Now, in a reverse scenario, the Catholic Church in Ukraine, and in Russia are under greater threat from the Russian Orthodox, which under Patriarch Kirill is a Putin ally. At this stage a negotiated compromise is the real solution, not the irrational proposal by some US military leadership and Europeans for a total defeat of the world’s greatest nuclear and delivery system power Russia.

    • “…a war that has had instigation and preparation for war with Russia by outside interests seeking to permanently weaken Russia”. This conclusion is doubtful in several respects. It is rather Putin’s own unique policies that have consistently manifested intentions to undermine sovereignty in Russia’s neighboring states of the Baltics, Georgia, etc. Out of the same policies and intentions emerged the ultimate Ukrainian invasion. In addition, it goes without saying, that anyone who understands the nature of Western political institutions, governmental systems and societal dynamics cannot fail to envisage the unlikelihood (sic. nonsensical idea) of say NATO seeking preemptively to “provoke” a war with Russia. It is of course, far more convenient for Putin and his Western supporters to disbelieve or belittle the significance of the fact that NATO is, and has always been, primarily a defensive rather than an offensive organization. This aspect alone betrays Putin’s exaggerated concerns about NATO (“outside interests”) as nothing more than pure fantasies empowering him to cement his own authoritarian inclinations.

      • NATO sought and continues to seek military alliance encirclement of Russia from Georgia to Ukraine, former Soviets that border Russia. It’s similar to the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. The Soviet’s removal of those missiles was due to a behind the scenes agreement for removal of previously placed US nuclear missiles in Turkey, which borders Russia.

        • Fr Morello, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis the Us had no hardened ICBM silos and the few systems available required lengthy setup and fueling times. Bombers were not armed and on continuous strip alert as was later the case. IRBM’s fired from Cuba would explode on target long before any counter action could even began. The Soviet situation was not comparable in any way. The vast expanse of the communist block ,which included China then, allowed their strategic forces to be stationed far beyond the range of what we had in Western Europe. The secret deployment to Cuba made their plans and intentions all too obvious. In any case how does one manage to encircle such a behemoth? Cuba was the start of an encirclement of the US which continues to this day.

        • […It’s similar to the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba]
          I think it’s time for someone to tell Putin the following: that we are in the 2000s, and not in the 1960s; that he is by no means faced with the role Nikita Khrushchev of the Cuban Missile Crisis needed to play; that the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire both ended with the onset of the 1990s; that – among other things, instead of acting paranoid and constantly dispatching killers at home and abroad to liquidate his perceived enemies and actively waging aggression in Russia’s backyard and elsewhere, he should rather be investing his country’s vast resources in investigating into, and addressing the rampant issues of unhappiness and extremely low life expectancy among his citizens.

    • “Russia was provoked”?? Really, thanks for my laugh of the day.

      In recent years Putin suspended the adoption of Russian orphans by citizens of others countries. EVERY major Russia city has an orphanage. Literally tens of thousands of children grow up in an institution, and then are thrown on their own at age 16 with no support. The predictable result: The girls turn to prostitution and the boys to theft, just to survive. Predictably, many end up jailed. Once, the daughter of a Russian military person living here in the US, told me that the Russian orphan boys often ended up in the military. They were considered especially desirable for that work since , as she told me, there would be no family to make a fuss about them if they were killed. I wonder of those orphans who could have used a good home provoked Putin too? Or did he just need more bodies for cannon fodder?

      This is personal for me because the son my husband and I adopted more than 20 years ago was one such Russian orphan. My heart breaks for the orphans who never had the same chance at a normal family thanks to Putin.

      Its hard for me to imagine that so many Americans still have blinders on about Russia. No one wants war. Sometimes it is forced upon you. Peace at any price is not really peace. Its just capitulation.

  2. Russian orphan management policy aside, Russia was indeed provoked to attack Ukraine. Putin has been very clear that he did not want to be surrounded by NATO countries. Ukraine even agreed to never join NATO. The West consistently ignored that concern and unabashedly NATO-ized Ukraine. It is correct that NATO is an organization for defense purposes. I know that fact firsthand as I served in Bosnia as a NATO peacekeeper. But was Putin provoked? Absolutely. Ask the question what would the US do if Russia and China massed on our southern border? Would the US perceive a threat? Of course it would. So too with Putin and Ukraine. With the exception of the Donbas region, Putin does not want Ukraine. He wants to neutralize a threat on his border.

    • The Germans wanted “lebensraum”( living space), and they had no problem killing the Poles to get it. Likewise the Russians always wanted an outlet to the sea. Hence the Russian theft of Crimea. That theft of territory was NOT provoked, and pretending many of the people living there were of Russian extraction does not provide grounds to seize territory belonging to another nation. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine is entitled to join NATO if it wants to. Otherwise it simply becomes a client state of Russia, jumping when Russia says so. The CURRENT war is simply step 2 in the Russian attempt to regain all its old territories. Its entirely possible you may not want to live next door to another nation. But as Jagger said ” You can’t always get what you want”. Taking what you want, or trying to push the natives of that area out of your way, often results in war.NATO is a defensive organization. That is bogus to suggest that the Russians were provoked.

    • OK, what about threats to our southern border ? Encirclement? Marxist governments now control Venezuela, Nicaragua(Rabibly anticatholic), and of course Cuba. Drug lords run Columbia, Much of Mexico, and now Haiti. All these countries contribute heavily (or beginning to ) to our so called “migration”. Oh yes, there are Chinese which travel in groups consisting entirely of military age males who wear the same clothes and carry the same backpacks. Last year the feds found that China had set up branches of its secret police in American cities to keep an eye on our ethnic Chinese. To complete the encirclement, back before the war on Ukraine Russia declared that it claimed the entire Arctic Ocean as its exclusive territory. Far more than enough Russian military bases are now concentrated near Alaska for us to hope to defend it during a larger war. Their bombers probe Alaskan airspace frequently.

  3. LJ, so you made a East European adoption also! Our son is from Bulgaria; he turns 31 in July. His orphanage was in Varna which has the remarkable distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. There were older settlements but they no longer exist. Bulgarians don’t hate Russians but they don’t want to be ruled by Russians, least of all retread Stalinists. When Putin wanted to fly in troops to the Balkans during the troubles with Serbia Bulgaria and Romania made their position clear by denying him use of their airspace. Anyway LJ, it is good to encounter folks who have similar experiences. The principal of the elementary school my son attended had adopted two little Russian boys in better times. We Loved to go to the annual adoption agency picnic to meet and share experiences with other families. God bless you LJ.

    • Hello JJR. Bravo to you for your adoption as well! Traveling to Russia was one of the big and scary adventures of our lives. My husband and I grew up at the height of the cold war, doing “shelter under you desk drills” in grammar school. My operative feeling about Russians is that they cannot be trusted.Prior to our adoption, Chernoble had happened, and the American embassy in Moscow, through which we would have to process out, had been rocket mortar attacked a few weeks before we left the US to get our son. It was an unnerving process and we went not knowing how many weeks we would be stuck there to get all the papers and approvals signed.Aeroflot had been crashing on a regular basis at that time too. Barely 30, we made certain our wills were written before we left, so in the event of our deaths, our eldest son at home would be properly cared for. Upon meeting our Russian son for the first time,at 6 months old, a Russian doctor told us he would experience developmental delays and would likely have significant trouble learning to walk. It was, they said, our decision now to proceed with the adoption or refuse him. We said yes. He came home with us malnourished and with no vaccinations.

      Over time we too went to the adoption agency gatherings and an adoptive parent support group. We still maintain touch with the two couples who traveled with us to the same orphanage to adopt.

      Our son is 28 now. Has hit a few bumps in the road while growing up, but no more than any American child. He is musically gifted, graduated a competitive high school with honors and won several college scholarships. He is employed as a paramedic for a major hospital system, and has saved several lives. What a terrible waste if he had languished in an orphanage. Further, he would be of prime military age right now. I have few doubts that had he remained in Russia, he would have been conscripted into the Russian army, where doubtless his life would be at grave risk even as I write this, fighting a war in Ukraine.

      My husband and I always consider our sons to be a great gift.We feel lucky they came into our lives.

      • Sorry, typo. We were almost 40 when adopting our second son. 30 when we did the first. I wish this site had a function which would allow the writer a chance to self correct.

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