A few years ago, in Sulaymaniyah, a town in Kurdish Iraq close to the Iranian border, an old man was found wandering in the streets. He said he was the father of "five or six children" who had all "emigrated to Germany."
He had Alzheimer's disease and was a Christian.Alerted by the parish priest, Archbishop Yousif-Thomas Mirkis of Kerkūk contacted one of the man's sons."He told me: 'We barely have enough to survive ourselves. Put him back on the streets.' Can you believe it? This is unimaginable, for us easterners," stated the archbishop, a Dominican who became a bishop in the Chaldean Church.
For three years, Archbishop Mirkis endeavored to provide assistance for the old man. No retirement home was willing to take him because he has Alzheimer's. Eventually, he found a family who agreed to take care of him in return for a financial settlement."After three months, they could no longer cope," the archbishop said.
The parish priest of Sulaymaniyah agreed, not without difficulty, to look after him in his own home.At times, the priest had to "lock him up so that he couldn't run away." And, in moments of lucidity, the poor old man apologized for "causing him problems.
"In Iraq, relatively little has been known about Alzheimer's. However, increased life expectancy and the collapse of families due to the emigration of younger generations to the West is causing the country to confront the issue of old age.
House of Mercy
"Often, elderly parents do not want to follow their children to foreign countries. They say they want to stay in order to 'look after the house.' But after four or five years, they become ill," said Archbishop Mirkis.
"The House of Mercy," built on land provided by the governor of Sulaymaniyah, is a direct consequence of this new and painful issue.With the help of a French architect and L'Oeuvre d'Orient (a Catholic association under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Paris, which aids Churches in the East), the building of the five-story center began in February 2018.
It is now complete.One floor will be for conferences and special occasions and another will house the center for research into Alzheimer's disease and training in gerontology.Two floors of 45 double bedrooms, designed as studios, will accommodate elderly people who are ill "without any distinction of religion, language or ethnicity."
A kindergarten will be established on the fifth floor, to "bring life" to the home and to promote inter-generational connections."For the chapel on the first floor, I dreamed of having stained glass windows created by the Dominican friar Kim En Joong. I wanted their light to welcome the old people," said Archbishop Mirkis.
"I went to see him, telling myself, 'They'll be too expensive. How will I pay for them? Well, I'll just order them and I'll find the money.' And then, while I was there, I met an official from the Archdiocese of Paderborn in Germany who found our project superb. He said to me, 'We'd be glad to buy them for you!'" the archbishop said.
There is just one more detail to sort out: the archdiocese still has to find just under a million euros for the management of its future retirement home!The Archdiocese of Monaco has just decided to make the retirement home the recipient of its Lenten fund-raising campaign.
"The reconstruction of Iraq is an enormous undertaking, a little like the reconstruction of France in 1945," Archbishop Mirkis pointed out."In order that the winter of 1954, when people died of cold in the streets, not be repeated, we need an Abbé Pierre, we need a Coluche," he said. (Abbé Pierre, d. 2007, was a Capuchin Franciscan who was famous for his ministry to the homeless; Coluche, d. 1986, was a famous French comedian who created a charity to feed the poor.)
"The Church is sensitive to the needs of Iraq, and when it sees a need, it tries its best to help. But the Church cannot be the only one in this struggle," the archbishop added.Even before the retirement home was completed, other Iraqi governors showed interest in the project, which they would like to copy in their own towns.
by Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner
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