I just got the following e-mail from a Chaldean priest friend of mine:
Dear Friends:
These are some pictures of the 2 churches bombarded in Mosul
by Islamic Fanatics. The damaged palace is the Chaldean Catholic
Diocese center, where I lived for almost two years, and now is no more
useful for use. It was a new palace built from 1992-1996, close to an
old Shrine of the Virgin Mary from the 7th century! The Shrine was
untouched, thank God.
Click to enlarge.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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Jimmy
This is a deplorable act, but your posting it invites the question: why did we not hear about these things under the Hussein reign of terror? To be sure, the US, did not mean to so violently destabilize the one Arab country that tolerated Christianity. but that is one (I would argue, foreseeable) effect of our invasion. Your friend’s thoughts and insights on the question would interest me.
Pax et Bonum (and a Holy Advent),
Chris