Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Australia

Australia picked to help rebuild shattered Christian town Qaraqosh

byEmilie Ng
9 November 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Benjamin Blanchard

Rebuilding Chritian cities: Benjamin Blanchard will give a series of talks in Brisbane, New South Wales and Victoria between November 26 and December 10.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Benjamin Blanchard
Rebuilding Chritian cities: Benjamin Blanchard will give a series of talks in Brisbane, New South Wales and Victoria between November 26 and December 10.

CHRISTIANS rebuilding their homes in devastated Qaraqosh could soon receive financial support from Australians concerned about the diminishing presence of Christianity in Iraq.

Benjamin Blanchard, the founder of a non-government organisation helping persecuted Christians living in the Middle East, SOS Chretiens d’Orient, will visit Australia later this month with the hope of raising $150,000 to help rebuild Qaraqosh.

Mr Blanchard will give a series of talks in Brisbane, New South Wales and Victoria between November 26 and December 10.

He will be welcomed into the country by Ora Duffley, a Brisbane Catholic who volunteered with Mr Blanchard’s organisation before Easter this year.

Ms Duffley became the first Australian to volunteer with SOS Chretiens d’Orient, which has attracted 1000 volunteers since beginning in 2013.

She said the organisation was impressed with the financial support she received from Australians and were now inviting the country to support in rebuilding one of Iraq’s oldest Christian cities.

“One of the projects they’ve given Australia is to help us rebuild the Christian city of Qaraqosh,” Ms Duffley said.

“We’ve raised a challenge for Australia to raise $150,000 in two weeks.”

Ora Duffley with a child in northern Iraq
Reaching out: Ora Duffley with one of the children she met while volunteering in northern Iraq recently.

Understood to be the largest Christian city in Iraq, Qaraqosh came under attack by Islamic militants ISIS, who raided the town to erase any traces of Christianity.

Families fled their homes, many losing their lives in the process, until Iraqi forces took back the city in October 2016.

Related Stories

Taliban target women’s rights as Australian bishops urge for more humanitarian places

Social services workers and vulnerable people need ready access to rapid antigen tests, Vinnies says

Why a Plenary Council? Archbishop Coleridge looks at the ‘great grace’ given to Australia for the century ahead

Several families who fled Qaraqosh were able to take up refugee status in Brisbane and are now living in the Bracken Ridge parish on Brisbane’s north.

The funds raised during Mr Blanchard’s Australian tour will help SOS Chretiens d’Orient’s work in giving hope to those who lost everything to remain as Christians in Qaraqosh.

As well as providing emergency aid and medical care to Christian refugees in Iraq, SOS Chretiens d’Orient also helps displaced persons to return to the lands where their ancestors lived.

Ms Duffley said Christians in the Middle East had lived in the region for thousands of years and deserved to call their villages home.

“Christians in these countries, in Iraq and in Syria, they are peaceful people and they bring a stability and a civility to society, and the Middle East needs that,” Ms Duffley said.

“Christians are good citizens, they’re educated people.

“They bring a stability to this place and without that I think things would be even worse in the Middle East.

“Christianity is the only faith that really forgives whatever happens to you and that is a powerful thing.

“For the Middle East to lose their Christians, to lose this example, it will be a dark day.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Australian bishops urge action over 600 asylum seekers fearing for their life on Manus

Next Post

Brisbane Catholic teacher dedicates first song to refugees

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Australian veterans in pain as Afghanistan falls to Taliban
World

Taliban target women’s rights as Australian bishops urge for more humanitarian places

28 January 2022
Testing woes: Shortages in the supply of rapid antigen tests is causing chaos for people needing a quick test result. Photo: CNS
QLD

Social services workers and vulnerable people need ready access to rapid antigen tests, Vinnies says

5 January 2022
Australian grace: "As I look back on the journey that has brought us to this point and forward to all that lies ahead, I would say that the Plenary Council is the great grace given to the Church in Australia at the dawn of the twenty-first century."
Australia

Why a Plenary Council? Archbishop Coleridge looks at the ‘great grace’ given to Australia for the century ahead

31 August 2021
Next Post
refugee song

Brisbane Catholic teacher dedicates first song to refugees

Latin Mass in Mt Perry

Is there a Latin Mass revival in Brisbane's country towns?

New journey of service begins for Brisbane men ordained deacons

Popular News

  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Hearts ‘fused’ together living their vocation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Church canonises 10 new saints who shared God’s love

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Queensland election: The pro-life political parties committed to abortion law reforms

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Link between porn and partner violence growing

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Cleanup begins after floodwaters swamp South East Queensland again

Cleanup begins after floodwaters swamp South East Queensland again

by Mark Bowling
16 May 2022
0

LAIDLEY parishioners in the Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane are relieved after floodwater rose to the top...

Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

16 May 2022
The Church canonises 10 new saints who shared God’s love

The Church canonises 10 new saints who shared God’s love

16 May 2022
Hearts ‘fused’ together living their vocation

Hearts ‘fused’ together living their vocation

15 May 2022
Link between porn and partner violence growing

Link between porn and partner violence growing

14 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping