Sister Diana Momeka, along with her Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, lived in a convent in Mosul, Iraq.
In 2009, a bomb exploded inside her convent, heavily damaging the building. Then, beginning in June of 2014, the Islamic State forced Sister Diana and 120,000 others to flee the entire Nineveh Plain region.
By August, for the first time in 1400 years, no church bells rang for mass on the entire plain of Nineveh.
Sister Diana bore testimony in front of Congress last week, giving witness to the systemic extermination of Christianity in her country (her officially submitted testimony is here.) (Also, she gave a very moving interview recently on Fox, explaining what life has been like for those fleeing ISIS in the last year.)
Refugees wait outside of a clinic for basic medical service.
Sister Diana now runs a medical clinic in Northern Iraq, providing much needed care to those who have fled the Islamic State, and who, like herself, have hastily settled there in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
In her testimony, Sister Diana credits the Church for stepping up to help the thousands of displaced:
Thankfully, the Church in the Kurdistan region stepped forward and cared for the displaced Christians, doing her very best to handle the disaster. Church buildings were opened to accommodate the people; food and non-food items were provided to meet the immediate needs of the people; and medical health services were also provided. Moreover, the Church put out a call and many humanitarian organizations answered with aid for the thousands of people in need.
We have made contact with Sister Diana, and offered our help. At Solidarity with the Persecuted Church, we exist to share the generosity of the American people with the Christian Church in those places where it confronts active persecution, so that Christianity’s presence might be solidified and strengthened.
Please donate here, so that we can provide Sister Diana with much needed funds.
Steve Wagner
Related