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A keen observation made by a Blauvelt Dominican sister who went to Iraq in January on a 10-day, fact-finding mission is both ironic and impressive.
Sister Arlene Flaherty, O.P., one of three American Dominican sisters to deliver supplies and support to a congregation of Iraqi Dominican sisters assisting displaced and suffering Christians in Erbil discovered something remarkable at all the temporary housing dwellings she visited.
“There was either a rosary, a picture of Jesus or a small shrine. That really spoke to me of their incredibly deep faith,” she said, despite the fact “that for many of them it is specifically their faith, their identity as Christians, that has been the source of their suffering in terms of people targeting them. Yet, above all, they continue to claim this identity and their faith.”
Despite their own hardship, the Iraqi Dominican sisters continue to care for other displaced and suffering Christians in the harsh winter, where many of the children are battling colds.
“It’s important for us to realize as Christians, and as Americans, that we have a particular and urgent responsibility toward the people of Iraq for whom the war is not over,” Sister Arlene said.
Sister Arlene, 62, a Dominican justice promoter and the director of justice and peace for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, has since returned to the archdiocese.
“The whole metaphor of ‘sister’—what these sisters in Iraq, who are also IDPs (internally displaced persons), and yet, really ministers of the Gospel at an incredibly intense time of history—witnessed to me and to all of us, what does it mean to be a woman religious, particularly at this time in history and in a time when we celebrate consecrated life.”
Sister Arlene was referring to the universal Church’s Year of Consecrated Life, which opened Nov. 30 and continues until Feb. 2, 2016.
“For me, as a Dominican, these are my sisters, and through them, the Iraqi people, my sisters and brothers,” said Sister Arlene, a Bronx native. “The question for me is, how do I, as a woman religious, who is a sister for all people—particularly at this time, these Iraqi people—really invite American people, the wider Christian community, into deeper relationship with Iraq.... These are our brothers and sisters, too.”
The American Dominicans also spent a day of their Jan. 5-14 trip with Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
Sister Arlene said her delegation strives “to cast light on the reality of the Iraqi people, the Iraqi Christian community,” who continue to struggle with displacement and the after-effects of war, and now the terrorism of ISIS.
Urgent needs, she underscored, include prayers for the Iraqi people but also to engage U.S. legislators in advocacy to the Iraqi central government, to international leaders and communities, to support the efforts to assist the humanitarian needs of Iraq and to create protection for the most vulnerable in Iraq.
“We also need the United States government to really raise the level of our humanitarian assistance budget—which is less than one percent of our total budget of the United States—so that we can sufficiently meet the needs of the displaced and suffering Iraqi people.”
The Iraqi Dominican Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of Mosul, now displaced in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq, is attempting to create centers of education and health care among the displaced community, to serve both Christians and Muslims in the northern sector of Iraq “so that Christianity will prevail, so that right relationship between Muslim and Christian will prevail, and so that the Iraqi people will have the education and social services they need to create together the peaceful future of Iraq,” Sister Arlene said.
“They need support, very specifically,” she added.
In Iraq, the three American sisters met with the U.S. Consulate in Kurdistan. They reviewed their observations about the conditions in which the Iraqi refugee population is living in Kurdistan.
Back on American soil, Sister Arlene as well as Sister Durstyne Farnan, O.P., an Adrian Dominican from Michigan, and Sister Marcelline Koch, O.P., a Springfield Dominican from Illinois, are sharing their story to increase awareness and encourage advocacy on behalf of those most in need in Iraq.
According to their draft report, tarpaulin was stretched across vacant windows and walls of unfinished two family homes, and tents were replaced with aluminum containers of 10 feet by 20 feet where Iraqi families, ranging from eight to 20 people, now live in a short-term solution to the never-ending question, “Where do we go from here?”
“This is an urgent, humanitarian crisis of great proportion,” she said.
Yet, hope is paramount, as their report attests: “During our days with the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Mosul, it was apparent that they, like their people, are traumatized by terrorism, as well as bewildered by the temporary, provisional and moment-to-moment living that is now their reality. However, as women of hope, their feet are firmly planted in solidarity with the displaced Iraqi people.”
Sister Arlene described many of the Sisters of St. Catherine of Mosul she met as young, highly educated and committed to their country. “We had real community with them,” she said. In addition to praying together every day—morning and evening, sung prayers in Arabic and in Aramaic, “we talked, we cried, we sang and we danced.”
In collaboration with other Dominican sisters and with Dominican priests and brothers, the Order of Preachers, Sister Arlene said she personally feels called to preach the Gospel “of mercy and justice, within the context of Iraq, in solidarity with the Iraqi people.”
“I hope that by us standing as family with the Iraqi people, we will be as Dominicans a reminder to the wider global community that beyond any difference that we construct around our politics or our cultures or our particular prejudices that God calls us all to be a family, because we are one human family in God.”
Sister Arlene, who entered the Blauvelt Dominicans in 1977 and made final vows in 1989, cites a common counter-argument voiced by some “‘that this is Iraq’s problem; let the Iraqi government take care of it.’”
Sister Arlene challenges that position, saying, “We as Americans have a responsibility to remain in partnership with the Iraqi government until it really gets on its feet and is able to govern and provide in the ways that their people want them to.”
