Written by: Elizabeth Owen
(ZENIT News / Baghdad, Iraq, 11.06.2022).- A miracle has taken place in the region, which a few years ago the Islamic State controlled and scourged: the miracle of the beauty of 172 Catholic children of the Chaldean Rite receiving the Eucharist for the first time.
The event took place in Qaraqosh on June 3, reported Chaldean Catholic priest Father Karam Shamasha: “On June 3 of 2022, 172 of our children, 99 boys and 73 girls, received their First Communion in Bakhdida, Qaraqosh. The area, which a few years ago was heavily attacked by militants of the Islamic State, which intended to exterminate Christians, today cried out in a loud voice: ‘our faith and our cross have won.’”
Over two years the Islamic State killed Christians, expelled others and destroyed churches and homes of Chaldean Catholic families. In 2016, after the withdrawal of radical Islamists, Christians began to return to their native land. The Holy Father visited this area during his Apostolic Journey to Iraq. Pope Francis went to Qaraqosh on March 7, 2021.
