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ROME, Italy – An Iraqi priest who was forced to flee his village when the Islamic State seized the area in 2014 said the hardship and persecution Christians in Iraq have experienced has taught them what it really means to fully live out their faith.

MOSUL, Iraq – As some residents of the city of Mosul celebrate their new freedom from the Islamic State group, an Iraqi Christian leader who visited the war-torn city said Christian residents are unlikely to return.

MARKA, Jordan – Working with displaced Iraqi Christians has stretched and strengthened the faith of a priest who came to Jordan as a refugee.

CHICAGO – On a recent overcast Sunday morning in northwest Chicago, the pews of the small wood-paneled St. Ephrem Chaldean Catholic Church were filled to overflowing. Among the rows of Massgoers sat Firaz Rassam and her sisters.

ISTANBUL – Yako Hanna, 36, always keeps an eye on his phone waiting for a call that would change his life.

BAGHDAD – The Rev. Martin Banni, a Chaldean Catholic priest, grabbed the Eucharist, the churchöÏÓãÊÓƵapp official documents and a few personal items ahead of the Islamic State fighters’ assault on Karemlash, a town 18 miles southeast of Mosul, two years ago.

AINKAWA, Iraq – Abu and Um Sabah had to trade a tent anchored in a soft, grassy patch in a park for a roughly hewn, five-story unfinished cement building as they sat out their forced displacement by Islamic State militants for a second year.