Nearly 700 young Christians gather in Iraq for Baghdeda Youth Festival
Nearly 700 young Christians gathered in Baghdeda (Qaraqosh) for the sixth annual Baghdeda Youth Festival on Sept 12, 2026. The festival, themed “In the Footsteps of St. Francis,” featured a spiritual conference, prayer sessions, and a large faith procession led by Bishop Benedictus Younan Hanno and other clergy. Participants carried olive branches, sang hymns, and concluded with a “Service of the Cross – Teshmeshta” and torch lighting, emphasizing peace and St. Francis’ values. The event included visits to restored churches in Mosul, highlighting the Christian community’s resilience after IS persecution.
17 days ago
Nearly 700 young Christians gathered in Baghdeda, also known as Qaraqosh, in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains for the sixth annual Baghdeda Youth Festival, held Sept. 10–12, 2026. Centered on the theme “In the Footsteps of St. Francis,” the event combined prayer, spiritual conferences, church pilgrimages, Eucharistic adoration, and a public procession. 1 2
The festival concluded with a “Hosanna Procession” led by Bishop Benedictus Younan Hanno of the Syriac Catholic Diocese of Mosul and its dependencies. Former diocesan bishops Yohanna Boutros Moshe and Georges al-Qass Moussa, priests, religious, and thousands of other faithful also took part. 1 2
The procession began at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and followed the traditional Palm Sunday route toward St. John Church. Participants prayed, sang hymns, chanted, and carried olive branches as symbols of peace before concluding with the Syriac “Service of the Cross,” or Teshmeshta, and the lighting of the festival torch. 1 2
Dominican Father Nuwairan Nasser addressed the participants before the procession in a conference titled “St. Francis: A Living Model for Our Young People in Living Hope.” He encouraged the young people to apply the spiritual values associated with St. Francis of Assisi to their daily lives. 1 2
The opening program included a reflection by Bishop Hanno titled “Leave Everything That Makes You Lose Yourself.” He described Christian freedom as a response of obedience to God, rather than freedom detached from accountability and responsibility. 1 2
Participants also divided into groups for prayer and pilgrimages to churches in Baghdeda, including St. Ephrem the Syriac Church, Sts. Behnam and Sarah Church, St. James the Mutilated Church, St. John the Baptist Church, and St. Joseph Church. 1 2
The festival’s second day brought the young Christians to restored churches in Mosul, where the Christian community experienced persecution and displacement during the Islamic State’s occupation. The group visited St. Thomas Church and the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Old City before going to Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in eastern Mosul. 1 2
Mosul residents welcomed the visitors in what organizers described as a renewed Christian presence in the community’s historic homeland. At Our Lady of the Annunciation Church, the participants took part in Eucharistic adoration. 1 2
Chorbishop Emmanuel Kallo, the bishop’s special vicar and official responsible for the Syriac Catholic churches in Mosul, delivered a conference titled “Forgive So That You May Be Free.” He presented forgiveness as a means of release from the burden and pain caused by wrongdoing. 1 2
Explore Catholic youth movements’ role in post‑ISIS community renewal
Catholic youth movements can play a significant role in post-ISIS community renewal, not primarily as political organizations, but as communities of faith, reconciliation, service, and interreligious cooperation. The supplied Catholic teaching presents Iraqi young people as agents of renewal now—not merely future leaders—while warning that spiritual healing, social trust, and material reconstruction must advance together.
ISIS fractured communities through terrorism, displacement, religious persecution, and fear. Youth movements can help repair this social fabric by creating regular spaces where Christians and Muslims meet, work, pray, study, and serve together. Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that young Christians and Muslims should build the future together through mutual respect and cooperation.
This is more than symbolic dialogue. Joint projects—such as restoring schools, assisting displaced families, supporting local charities, or preserving cultural heritage—allow young people to encounter one another as neighbors rather than representatives of hostile groups. The Vatican’s reflection on Iraq stresses that healing requires “concrete steps”: sharing memories, experiences, and work, especially among the young.
Post-conflict communities often risk treating young people only as beneficiaries of aid. Catholic youth ministry offers a different vision: young people are participants in the Church’s mission and in the reconstruction of society. Pope Leo XIV told Iraqi youth that they are “not only the future of the Church, but also the present,” entrusting them with responsibility for shaping both Church and world.
Accordingly, youth movements should involve young Iraqis in leadership, catechesis, social service, communications, and peacebuilding. The Church’s emphasis on lay service is important here: service is not passive assistance but organized mobilization for the good of the Church and society.
Such participation can restore dignity and agency to young people whose education, family life, employment, or hopes were disrupted by war. It also helps counter the temptation to emigrate permanently by making Christian communities places where young people can contribute meaningfully to their homeland.
Renewal cannot be reduced to rebuilding buildings or restarting institutions. The Church’s vision joins reconstruction with conversion of heart. Pope John Paul II, speaking to young people in a society emerging from war, connected material rebuilding with spiritual reconstruction, peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
This does not mean ignoring justice or asking survivors to suppress trauma. Pope Francis explicitly held together the need to forgive and the courage to oppose terrorism and the manipulation of religion; he also acknowledged that complete healing may be long and difficult. Catholic youth movements can therefore provide pastoral accompaniment, remembrance, confession, prayer, and safe communal support without treating forgiveness as forgetfulness or as a substitute for accountability.
Pope Leo XIV presents prayer, Scripture, Mass, adoration, and the sacraments as foundations for mission. In this framework, young people serve others not merely from activism or anger but from a relationship with Christ that gives endurance, compassion, and hope.
Catholic youth movements could contribute in several interconnected ways:
The USCCB’s youth framework adds that effective ministry must listen seriously to young people, acknowledge their suffering, and pursue healing and reconciliation rather than merely asking youth to participate in pre-existing programs.
Youth movements cannot replace the state, professional trauma care, schools, or mechanisms of justice. Nor can religious enthusiasm by itself resolve security problems, unemployment, corruption, or forced migration. The supplied sources do not provide empirical evidence measuring the concrete impact of particular Iraqi Catholic movements after ISIS, so their effectiveness in specific regions remains unresolved.
They can, however, form the moral and relational foundations on which broader recovery depends. Their credibility will require safeguarding, competent leadership, cooperation with local bishops and parishes, respect for other religions, and a refusal to instrumentalize young people for sectarian politics.
Catholic youth movements can become instruments of post-ISIS renewal when they unite mission with service, memory with forgiveness, and Christian identity with openness to others. Their distinctive contribution is to form young people who do not merely survive the legacy of violence but actively rebuild trust, welcome displaced neighbors, resist revenge, and embody a credible Christian hope. In the Catholic vision expressed by the popes, Iraq’s young people are not waiting for renewal to arrive: they are among its principal agents.