Nineveh: Eleven years after the Islamic State’s brutal occupation of Mosul and Nineveh, Iraqi Christians continue to stand firm in the faith of their forebears. Despite ongoing regional tensions and the scars of past violence, churches across Iraq are witnessing remarkable congregations, according to Arab media sources, including the regional center ACI MENA.
In a moving testament to their resilience, more than a thousand children recently received their First Holy Communion in different parts of the country. The celebrations were marked by joy, prayer, and a deep sense of unity. In Baghdad, 50 children received the sacrament in Chaldean parishes, while 32 did so in a Syrian Catholic parish. At the historic Church of Our Lady of Deliverance a site of the 2010 massacre that claimed dozens of Christian lives, including two priests a single child received communion, a symbolic act of courage and hope.
In Qaraqosh, part of the Syrian Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul and its dependencies, 461 children participated in three separate First Communion ceremonies. Nearby towns of Bashiqa and Bartella saw 30 children welcomed to the Eucharist by Archbishop Benedictus Younan Hano. Meanwhile, Archbishop Bashar Warda presented Jesus to 210 children during services held across three churches.
For Iraq’s Christian community, these ceremonies are more than religious milestones they are living proof of faith’s endurance in the face of decades of persecution. Each child’s step toward the altar stands as a quiet but powerful defiance against the forces that once tried to erase their presence from the land.