This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley turn their attention to the Middle East. Their guest is Olivier Poquillon, O.P., a French Dominican priest who, until recently, served as the pastor of a Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq. That church was almost completely destroyed by ISIS in 2014 when the terrorist group took over one of the few remaining religiously diverse communities in the country. After ISIS was driven from the city, Father Poquillon returned to oversee the reconstruction of the church. He was recently named the director of the École Biblique in Jerusalem—the oldest biblical and archaeological research center in the Holy Land—and is on the commission for methodology for the Synod on Synodality here in Rome.

Zac and Ashley talk to Father Poquillon about:

The history of religious diversity and violence in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of the Abrahamic faiths
What Pope Francis’ 2021 visit to Iraq meant to the people of Mosul
What he heard from the Catholics living in the Middle East during their local synodal sessions

In Signs of the Times, the hosts discuss the latest Catholic developments related to the war between Israel and Hamas, including the news that Pope Francis might know one of the Argentine victims of the Oct. 7 massacre. Next, they talk about the pope’s new apostolic exhortation on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “the Little Flower.”

Links from the show:

What’s on tap?

Chianti Classico

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The French Dominican bringing Middle East Catholics’ concerns to Rome