THREAD: Iraq boasts a 2,000-yr-old continuous Christian community rooted in its ancient civilization & geography. The apostle St Thomas founded his faith in Iraq, fr where he traveled to convert India, China & Ethiopia along the trading routes for silk & spices #PopeFrancisInIraq “We have Christianity in Iraq from the very beginning,” Kirkuk Archbishop Fr. Yousif Toma (Toma references St. Thomas) told me. “Christianity spread very quickly from the first century & we've a long & interesting history. The first churches in the world were founded here.”

Thread: In 2011, Furat, 23, met with me in Iraq's capital to discuss his surviving the Oct 31, 2010 attack on Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad, Sayedat AlNajat سيدة النجاة.
"I would like the world to know what happened here," he said.
#PopeFrancisInIraq Going back, Sun. Jan 29, 2006 was a bloody day for Christians in Iraq. Car bombs exploded in coordinated attacks on at least four churches in Baghdad & the northern city of Kirkuk within 20 minutes, as well as outside the Vatican mission in the capital, killing & wounding dozens.