One family spent a night in their home but were kept awake by their neighbor yelling that they were infidels, Fr. Bazi said. "No ISIS anymore, but still the mentality of terrorists…the radical way," he said.
"So my people, again and again, they are between two fires, to live in camps, or to go back again to hell, I mean Mosul."
As Christians move back into their homes there, "the trust between people, actually, is completely lost," he admitted. Yet Christians will forgive, and in time the relationships may be mended.
It is imperative that the Christians who can stay in Iraq do so, he maintained, as they will serve as a necessary "bridge" between minorities. "(If) we don't have Christians, we don't have examples of forgiveness in Iraq," he said.
Meanwhile, in Syria, Christians are caught in the middle of a proxy war that has raged since 2011 with no immediate end in sight. They co-existed with Muslim neighbors for centuries, but that balance stands to be upset as refugees are forced to flee their homes for elsewhere within Syria or to other countries.
Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church told CNA of how the Church there helps those in need, the majority of whom are Muslims.
"We do that, not only because it's our mission, it's our faith that teaches us to help everyone," he insisted, "but also because we want to invest in our future with these people, these our neighbors, our countrymen, women, and our future is together."
Fr. Alexi Chehadeh, director-general of ecumenical relations and development for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, rejected the idea of dividing Syria into Alawite, Sunni Muslim, and Christian sections.
"We are against this," he said. "We want a unified Syria under one flag," adding that he wished "that Muslims and Christians are living together in peace and harmony."
However, not all Christians around the world are setting an example of neighborliness, tolerance, and forgiveness. "Some of the conflict involving Christian groups and some of the persecution is coming from Christians," Dr. Timothy Shah told CNA.
Shah is the director for international research of the Religious Freedom Research Project at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
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He pointed to examples of Christians persecuting other Christians in Russia, Mexico, Latin America, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.
In Mexico, for instance, Protestant families have been driven from their villages for their beliefs. "You're talking about people whose lives are drastically affected," Shah said. "This simply should not be happening in an era where the Holy Father talks about the ecumenism of blood."
In Russia, the Supreme Court just outlawed Jehovah's Witnesses from publicly practicing their faith. In Sri Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo has backed "laws restricting conversion," he said.
Through his rhetoric, the cardinal "is not, let's be candid, practicing, I think, the kind of spirit of brotherhood with non-Catholic Christians that I think the Holy Father has himself clearly embodied, both when he was archbishop in Argentina and also as Pope," Shah continued.
Yet there is also a palpable "sense of hope that Christians really can respond effectively" to persecution, he said, citing the recently-released report "Under Caesar's Sword" which documents how Christians around the world have decided to respond to persecution, many times through non-violence, dialogue, and forgiveness.
Despite the witness to charity of fellow Christians in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the Western Church must do much more to help them through prayer, charitable giving, and advocacy, speakers at the summit insisted.