{"id":9812,"date":"2015-06-26T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=9812"},"modified":"2015-06-26T11:00:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T11:00:23","slug":"iraq-nun-urges-us-to-do-more-to-help-refugees-displaced-by-isis-sister-diana-momeka-cns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2015\/06\/26\/iraq-nun-urges-us-to-do-more-to-help-refugees-displaced-by-isis-sister-diana-momeka-cns\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq: Nun urges US to do more to help refugees displaced by ISIS &#8211; Sister Diana Momeka (CNS)"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p>Thursday, 14 May 2015<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Sister Diana Momeka told a congressional hearing that Iraqis who have fled Islamists &#8216;want nothing more than to go home&#8217;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dominican Sister Diana Momeka from Iraq has urged US congress to do more to help Christians displaced from her country \u201cgo back home\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Sister Diana, a Dominican Sister of St Catherine of Siena of Mosul, was speaking at a congressional committee hearing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want nothing more than to go back to our lives; we want nothing more than to go home,\u201d she told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, entitled Ancient Communities Under Attack: ISIS\u2019s War on Religious Minorities, Sister Diana was one of four women who spoke of the urgent need to not only help and protect religious minorities but also to preserve and save religious sites.<\/p>\n<p>Recounting her own experience, Sister Diana said a bomb exploded at the sisters\u2019 convent in Mosul in 2009. The sisters were unharmed but were forced to move to Qaraqosh in Iraq\u2019s Nineveh Plain. Last year ISIS invaded that region forcing the sisters to flee once again.<\/p>\n<p>She said ISIS told Christians they either had to convert to Islam, pay a tribute to ISIS or leave with \u201cnothing more than the clothes on their back\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In her case, she left only with her habit and her purse, which fortunately had her passport in it. Other sisters, she said, were not able to get their important papers before the forced evacuation.<\/p>\n<p>The Dominican sisters joined more than 120,000 people displaced and homeless in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. She told the House committee members that this uprooting and theft of \u201ceverything that the Christians owned, displaced them body and soul, stripping away their humanity and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reading from her prepared text, the sister told the members of Congress and those seated in the hearing room: \u201cISIS\u2019s plan is to evacuate the land of Christians and wipe the earth clean of any evidence that we ever existed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is cultural and human genocide,\u201d she said, adding that the loss of the Christian community has \u201cplaced the whole region on the edge of a terrible catastrophe. Christians have for centuries been the bridge that connects Eastern and Western cultures. Destroying this bridge will leave an isolated, inculturated conflict zone emptied of cultural and religious diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said the first priority is to help Iraqi Christians return to their homes by freeing the region from ISIS control. Next, there will need to be major rebuilding effort to restore roads, water, electricity and buildings including churches and monasteries.<\/p>\n<p>When a member of Congress asked about other needs, Sister Diana stressed the urgency for psychological help for the religious minority refugees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have strong programs,\u201d she said, noting that a Yezidi woman who came to the sisters for help had been repeatedly raped by ISIS members and suffered from burns. \u201cShe can\u2019t control herself when she tells her story,\u201d Sister Diana said, adding that the sisters are trying to find treatment for her.<\/p>\n<p>She also told the committee that the people they work with have not lost faith through the ordeals they have experienced. \u201cOur faith is increasing and making us stronger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were displaced yet the hand of God is still with us. In the midst of darkness we see God holding us,\u201d she said, calling it a \u201cgift of the Holy Spirit giving us strength to stay in our country and have hope that someday we will go back home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sister said it was difficult for her to talk about the situation of Christians in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a religious sister, I am not comfortable with the media and so much attention,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I am here and I am here to ask you, to implore you for the sake of our common humanity to help us. Stand with us as we, as Christians, have stood with all the people of the world and help us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday, 14 May 2015 Sister Diana Momeka told a congressional hearing that Iraqis who have fled Islamists &#8216;want nothing more than to go home&#8217; Dominican Sister Diana Momeka from Iraq has urged US congress to do more to help Christians displaced from her country \u201cgo back home\u201d. Sister Diana, a Dominican Sister of St Catherine&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9812","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>Iraq: Nun urges US to do more to help refugees displaced by ISIS - Sister Diana Momeka (CNS) - 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\/2015\/06\/26\/iraq-nun-urges-us-to-do-more-to-help-refugees-displaced-by-isis-sister-diana-momeka-cns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iraq: Nun urges US to do more to help refugees displaced by ISIS - Sister Diana Momeka (CNS) - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thursday, 14 May 2015 Sister Diana Momeka told a congressional hearing that Iraqis who have fled Islamists &#8216;want nothing more than to go home&#8217; Dominican Sister Diana Momeka from Iraq has urged US congress to do more to help Christians displaced from her country \u201cgo back home\u201d. 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