The Return of Christians to the Nineveh Plains
L’Œuvre d’Orient funded 46 projects in 2025
Présentation de l’action de l’Œuvre d’Orient en Irak. Contenu de démonstration.
The predominant religion in Iraq is Islam, with 62% of the population being Shia and 37% Sunni. Christians make up less than 2% of the population; two-thirds are Catholic (mainly Chaldeans and Syriacs), one-third are Orthodox, and there are also Assyrians. Yazidi and Sabian-Mandaean minorities are also present. Christians have lived in this country for 2,000 years. Before 2003, Iraq was home to one of the largest Christian communities in the Middle East. Eighty percent of the Christian population has fled the country since 1990. The Chaldean Patriarch (head of the entire Chaldean community worldwide) is His Beatitude Louis Raphaël Sako. He resides in Baghdad.
Christians in Iraq are the heirs to a very ancient religious tradition that predates the birth of Islam in the 7th century. Almost all of these Christians are descendants of peoples who lived in Mesopotamia before the Christian era. The Chaldean Church was founded in Babylon by Saint Thomas and his disciples. They evangelized pagans and exiled Jews. At that time, it was known as the Church of the East. This Church, which had been separated since the Council of Ephesus in 431, rejoined the Catholic Church in 1553. The Assyrian Church remained separate.
– In 1932, Christians made up 20% of the population;
– Beginning in the 1980s, the country experienced an initial wave of emigration, and the Christian population has since fallen to just 10%. Since the U.S. intervention, the population has continued to decline:
– in 2005, Christians still made up 5% of the population,
– in 2007, only 3% remained,
– in 2008, the figure had reportedly fallen to just 2%.
Restoration of 31 homes in Qaraqosh, Iraq
In Qaraqosh, a Syriac Catholic town, L’Œuvre d’Orient facilitated the renovation of 31 homes identified by the Reconstruction Committee led by Father Georges, which was tasked with assessing needs and coordinating aid. As a result, 24 families were able to return home this summer, to everyone’s great joy; “The children have more space, which is good for their studies,” says one father happily.
