{"id":12810,"date":"2016-02-04T08:46:44","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T08:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=12810"},"modified":"2016-02-04T08:46:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T08:46:44","slug":"international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\">International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last week The Associated Press confirmed that exclusive satellite images published early on January 20 showed that the ancient monastery of St Elijah on the outskirts of Mosul had been totally destroyed. \u00a0ISIS militants had turned Iraq&#8217;s oldest Christian monastery into a pile of rubble when they invaded the region in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Among those who expressed outrage and\u00a0 sense of loss after seeing pictures of the monastery\u2019s destruction.was Fr Jeffrey Whorton who had served as a Catholic chaplain for the US military in Iraq. His reaction to the news \u201cwas that profound and surprisingly strong emotion because of my connection with the monastery&#8230;.It was a kind of a grief that was like a loss of life almost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fr Whorton said the chance give informal tours of the monastery and pray there during his tour of duty in Iraq \u201cwas probably the highlight of my entire priesthood.\u201d He believed he was the last priest in 2009 to \u201coffer Mass on that altar before it was destroyed.\u201d He felt it was a sacred place where ancient Christians had worshipped for centuries:\u201cIn the forefront of my mind was the reality that in 1700s, 150 or so monks had been martyred there\u201d. He remarked sadly \u201cI did not realise until I saw the pictures of the destruction that I would be one of the ones to literally close the door on this ancient church,\u201d adding \u201cI hope that I closed it with all the necessary decorum that is due to such a venerable place.\u201d The Easter Vigil in 2010 was the last recorded Church service to take place inside the monastery\u2019s walls, and even that was held in the courtyard not the altar area.<\/p>\n<p>Many people worldwide had expressed concern about the fate of St Elijah monastery after ISIS militants invaded the region in June 2014 and cut off most communication. Fr Whorton was among those who were responsible for a preservation initiative on the 1,400-year-old iconic Christian monument.<\/p>\n<p>Assyrian Father Emanuel Youkhana, who heads the Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq, also denounced the destruction of St Elijah as yet another assault on Christians and their heritage in their ancient homeland. Recalling how many scientific, philosophic and historical books were written or translated in such monasteries, he felt its destruction was \u201ca memory of Iraq which has been cut off\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Fr Yourhana voiced his concern for the future of Christianity in the region if we did not take steps to protect diversity and give Christians the chance to survive and build a future there. He asks:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they damage my 2,000 years of Christianity and 5,000 years of Assyrian heritage as the indigenous people of this country, my question is this: If my history is being damaged, my present is being threatened, is there any future?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He drew attention to other examples of deliberate destruction by ISIS including damage to archaeological sites in Nineveh and the bulldozing of the Assyrian city of Nimrod, where the Tower of Babel is believed to have existed &#8211;\u00a0 an act which the United Nations described as \u00a0cultural cleansing and a war crime.<\/p>\n<p>Fr Yourhana once again called upon the international community to do more to preserve the presence of Christians in their ancient homeland in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out &nbsp; Last week The Associated Press confirmed that exclusive satellite images published early on January 20 showed that the ancient monastery of St Elijah on the outskirts of Mosul had been totally destroyed. \u00a0ISIS militants had turned Iraq&#8217;s oldest Christian monastery&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out &nbsp; Last week The Associated Press confirmed that exclusive satellite images published early on January 20 showed that the ancient monastery of St Elijah on the outskirts of Mosul had been totally destroyed. \u00a0ISIS militants had turned Iraq&#8217;s oldest Christian monastery...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-04T08:46:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Praying-for-religious-freedom-in-prison-in-Faisalabad-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"243\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"324\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Praying-for-religious-freedom-in-prison-in-Faisalabad-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-04T08:46:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-04T08:46:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Praying-for-religious-freedom-in-prison-in-Faisalabad-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Praying-for-religious-freedom-in-prison-in-Faisalabad-1.jpg\",\"width\":243,\"height\":324},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/international-community-urged-to-protect-historic-christian-sites-from-isis-priests-speak-out-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"International community urged to protect historic Christian sites from ISIS \u2013 priests speak out &#8211; 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