Fr Rami Wakim, a Catholic priest serving in the Middle East explained to the world about the harsh realities that Iraqi Christians face ever since the beginning of the conflict with the ISIS. The Christian refugees in Iraq have begun to express great disappointment in their government and military for abandoning them to the Islamic militants.
Fr Wakim told the Catholic Herald that the Christians were very disappointed in their government particularly during one incident in Mosul where the 60,000 soldiers that were stationed there had withdrew as soon as the ISIS had started their attack, leaving all the civilians to fend for themselves.
The Islamic state had already captured a considerable amount of territory in the Iraq and Syria territory. Fr. Wakim had witnessed first-hand what the refugees were going through during a visit to Ebril, the capital of the Kurdish area of Iraq with other Catholic and Orthodox delegates. He described how the church buildings were all filled with mattresses, occupied by many more people than they could originally hold, forcing some of the people to sleep in the parking lots.
The refugees, upon seeing Fr. Wakin and his other delegates and patriarchs all came towards him asking for prayers and blessings. "It was very touching. The (Melkite) patriarch cried many times when he saw these people. He was hugging and kissing them as he cried. Of course, I cried, too. I think all the patriarchs cried because they felt helpless, there was nothing they could do at that very moment," Wakim said.
The international community is currently actively working to assist the civilians in Iraq and Syria as well as combat the ISIS threat. The United Nations had recently declared the highest level of humanitarian emergency in Iraq, and the U.S. is still launching airstrikes against Islamic State heavy weaponry.
