Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

When ISIS extremists rolled across Iraq’s Nineveh Plain in 2014, tens of thousands of Christians fled to Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq. They still wait in limbo in crowded camps. Their only certainty is that whatever happens to them, a group of Dominican nuns will be at their side. “We will not leave our people. Wherever they go, we will go with them,” said Sister Luma Khudher, a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. The Iraqi congregation was founded in Mosul in the late 19th century, and over the decades the nuns have operated schools and clinics throughout the country. The nuns became the de facto managers of aid for much of the displaced community in Irbil. “The sisters were everywhere. When we asked about the needs of the displaced, no one could answer with any authority except the Dominican sisters,” said Michel Constantin, the regional director for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Francis greets Professor Joseph Stiglitz at the "Debt Crisis in the Global South" meeting at the Vatican in June 2024 (Vatican Media)
An interview on economics and Catholic social teaching with Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist and a professor at Columbia University.
Kevin ClarkeApril 03, 2025
Lesson one: I had to buy more stamps.
Valerie SchultzApril 03, 2025
Celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea should give new energy to evangelization efforts, a new document from the International Theological Commission says.
In this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell walk us through the pontiff’s recovery, including “slight improvements” in his speech.
Inside the VaticanApril 03, 2025