Archbishop of Mosul -
Archbishop of Mosul - The Savior of Sacred Relics Keeps Hope Alive BY ADHID MIRI, PHD AND SARAH KITTLE “ We cannot save a tree without saving its roots.” To Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa, the thousands of manuscripts, books and writings that he almost single-handedly saved from destruction are the roots of a religion and culture that stretch back into the past and connect the widespread Chaldean community to an honored history. That history is one that opposing forces would like to erase. Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) see the Church as an enemy and IS (sometimes called ISIS) made a point to tear down and destroy as many Christian buildings and artifacts as it could when it invaded Iraq in 2014. “Culture and civilization were born here,” says Moussa. “Today it is a bath of blood, and the destruction is almost complete and total,” he goes on to say, “But even with all this, we keep the hope for a better future.” What does hope to mean to people who were expelled from their home by ISIS? How does one gain trust in a fractured community? What does interfaith reconciliation look like in the Iraq of the future? Many in the Nineveh Plains have asked these questions. One of the courageous few forging answers is Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa. It takes an extraordinary person to do extraordinary things. Someone with courage, motivation, and foresight. Archbishop Moussa is one of those people. Moussa entered religious life at age 24, becoming a Dominican priest at 31. His early years of service were spent at Al-Saa (Our Lady of the Hour) Church in Mosul, Iraq. There, he was put in charge of the conservation of ancient manuscripts, centuries-old letters and approximately 50,000 books, all irreplaceable historical documents, and all in danger of destruction. Thanks to his years of training, Moussa was able to preserve the archives. In 2007, he transferred them to Qaraqosh, once Iraq’s largest Christian city, to protect them during an Islamist insurgency which saw thousands of Christians flee Mosul under the threat of conversion to Islam or death. Archbishop Moussa was instrumental in helping those displaced from Mosul and the Nineveh Plains reach safety, himself and his brothers passing the checkpoint just days before IS invaded. When the Islamic State (IS) swept across Iraq in 2014, Moussa again took action. As the jihadists charged toward Qaraqosh, the Dominican friar filled his car with rare manuscripts, 16th century books and irreplaceable records, fleeing east to the relative safety of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. With two other friars from his order, Archbishop Moussa also moved the Oriental Manuscript Digitization Centre (OMDC), which scans damaged manuscripts recovered from churches and villages across northern Iraq. “We put what we had in the cars,” said Moussa. “We had two; many people were without a car. To save lives, we had them ride in our cars and sit on our heritage. “We said we would live together, or die together.” The cars sped off into the darkness. They were in sight of the checkpoint when a little girl with the group spotted vehicles with ISIS flags bearing down on them. Kurdish security forces fired at the ISIS vehicles, allowing Moussa and his group to make it to safety. They were lucky. From the Kurdish capital Erbil, he and a team of Christian and Muslim experts digitally copied thousands of Chaldean, Syriac, Aramaic, and Nestorian manuscripts, preserving them for future generations. Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from IS in the summer of 2017, and Moussa returned to the city months later to attend the first post-IS Christmas mass. He found his church in ruins, with rooms transformed into workshops for bombs and other explosives; gallows had replaced the altar. But he insisted there was reason for hope. “I’m optimistic,” Archbishop Moussa said. “The last word will be one of peace, not the sword.” Moussa was ordained in January of 2019 as the new Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul. “Our message to the whole world, and to all of Mosul’s people, is one of coexistence, love and peace among all of Mosul’s different communities, and the end of the ideology that IS brought here.” Mosul is unique for its multicultural and diverse society. Archbishop Moussa has the task of restarting the dialogue and encouraging Muslims, Christians and other faiths towards reconciliation and reconstruction from a perspective of lasting peace. In November of 2019, the Chaldean Community Foundation honored Archbishop Moussa with an award in recognition of his heroic actions. Due to instability in Iraq, 18 CHALDEAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2020
Moussa was unable to travel to the U.S. to attend the annual gala. The award was handed to him by a Chaldean delegation that visited Erbil in December of 2019. In a statement released on September 17, 2020, the European Parliament (EP) announced that Archbishop Najib Mikhael Moussa had been nominated for the prestigious 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, which is awarded annually “to honor exceptional individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The EP nominated the Catholic Chaldean Archbishop because he assisted in the evacuation of Christians, Syriacs and Chaldeans to Iraqi Kurdistan and safeguarded more than 800 historic manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 19th century. Not only did Moussa save sacred writings, he helped digitize them for future generations. The statement released by the EP went on to say, “These manuscripts were later digitized and exhibited in France and Italy. Since 1990, he has contributed to safeguarding 8,000 more manuscripts and 35,000 documents from the Eastern Church.” Education is the best weapon against obscurantism. For Archbishop Moussa, this is “not a personal recognition, but one for Iraq as a whole.” He considers the nomination as “a signature on every page of the manuscripts.” It is also a way to remember the “innocent victims, especially the Yazidis,” says Moussa, “a peaceful people who had to face a real tragedy and to whom I feel particularly connected.” The nomination means much more than just winning the prize would. The Archbishop’s job now is to rebuild the Church in Mosul. One of the most important aspects is to “give hope to our families – all Christian families, not just Chaldeans – to come back to Mosul,” said Moussa. The population in the region has been affected by the IS reign, from the schools to the mosques. “It’s not easy,” the Archbishop acknowledged. “We have seen a shared response from everyone, including Muslims, who have done an extraordinary job to help Christian families and save their heritage. “We need true peace in order to continue living as a community based on the principle of citizenship, overcoming barriers of race, religion, ethnicity…this is the only viable solution for the future.”
