FROM OUR SENT TO KARAMLES (Northern Iraq) There is no more Santa Barbara. Here only the Islamic State exists, the Isis activists wrote scornfully with black paint in August seven years ago on the light marble that covers the walls of the village’s most famous basilica. For over two years the massive structure of Santa Barbara was their fort, they dug a long tunnel in the hill just behind, hid ammunition and heavy weapons.. In order not to be noticed by the American drones, they accumulated sand and stones from the excavation inside the ancient rooms of the basilica. They hammered out the crosses and writings in Archaic, Assyrian and Aramaic Chaldean along the walls. They camped near the tomb with the saint’s relics, profaned it, broke the tombstone, and devastated the relics of the sixth century AD. After all, what did they know about the long tradition of the Eastern churches? And from the centennial theological diatribe between Nestorians and Latins on the relationship between Christ, his Father and the essence of the divine? They came here as conquerors. They occupied these rooms for two years. But in the end we chased them away. Karamles returned to its Christian inhabitants, proudly says the 45-year-old Chaldean-Catholic father Paolo Mekko, who in October 2016 was taken up by international televisions intent on planting a large cross on the hill behind Santa Barbara intended to signal to all the villages of the Nineveh plain. that his faithful had made it, had resisted the barbarism of the jihadists.
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With him we retrace the alleys of the village. Many houses are closed, showing signs of fires. Paolo was one of the last to flee during those days in early August 2014. Isis was like a river in flood. We had met him earlier in his parish as he watched with concern the Kurdish peshmerga who seemed unable to resist the fanatics advancing from Mosul. Then, again in the garden of the Chaldean patriarchate in Erbil, while he was busy distributing tents, mattresses and water to his displaced and frightened people, deprived of everything. It’s not bad. Of the approximately 3,000 Christians originally from Karamles, approximately 1,200 have returned to their homes. Those who have been allowed to emigrate to the United States, as well as to Canada, do not return, Australia and Europe. The Western world thought it would help us with the easy visa policy. But this is what contributes to the exodus. Better help us at our home, he explains. Here for the people stresses that young people try not to return. The elderly prevail. The ancient part of the town dates back to the fourth century after Christ. But the foundations are prehistoric and all around archaeologists have discovered Assyrian-Babylonian sites. He shows the broken crosses in the cemetery around the church dedicated to St. George. The local oratory is organizing a gymnastic rehearsal for the students on the occasion of the Pope’s passage to Qaraqosh, only three kilometers from here. And next Sunday the restored wooden statue of the Madonna of Karamles, whose head and arms had been cut off by the jihadists, will be blessed by Francis during the mass celebrated in the Erbil stadium.
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March 3, 2021 | 23:24
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