Shining a Light on the Christian Plight

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda (center), joined Alejandro Bermudez (far right), executive editor of the ACI Group and Catholic News Agency, and other dignitaries and staff members at a ceremony marking the launch of the Arabic-language news agency in Erbil, Iraq, on March 25, 2022.

New media project in Erbil takes off

By Cal Abbo

The Chaldeans in Iraq have decided they won’t go away, as they lay even more roots in their communities, resettle as refugees, and build institutions.

The latest efforts to preserve the life and freedoms of Christians in the Middle East comes out of the Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) and Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda. A few months ago, CUE launched a media outlet called ACI MENA (Association for Catholic Information Middle East and North Africa) in collaboration with the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN), which covers the Catholic Church as well as Catholic issues around the world. ACI MENA will shed light on the plight of Middle Eastern Christians and their untold stories.

“I am pleased to announce that EWTN has begun a service reporting news from the embattled and underserved Christian communities in the Middle East,” said Michael P. Warsaw, EWTN’s chairman and CEO. “This is an important milestone in the growth of EWTN News around the globe, and I am pleased that we are taking this significant step to better serve our courageous brothers and sisters in the region who have endured so much.”

ACI MENA’s current Editor-in-Chief is a man named Rody Sher. He works on special projects for CUE and was chosen to lead the new media effort as a result of his extensive career in Iraqi and minority media. Sher currently works as a journalist and TV presenter at AlSharqiya and has a past at Babylon TV.

Sher understands that the global media dynamic is not in his favor. He speaks about the ongoing dust storms – which have killed several people and hospitalized thousands more – that went largely unknown in the west. Life can be difficult in the Middle East, especially for Christians, and they want their community of believers to know about it.

Thus, the need for ACI MENA presents itself. Not only will it broadcast information and reports to the Western world, but the organization also aims to unify the Christian world in the Middle East. ACI MENA is based in Erbil, but its coverage extends to the entire Arabic-speaking world. And with a little Google Translate magic, the message can go a lot further.

“I was chosen by Archbishop Warda to contribute to this newly established agency,” Sher said. “I used to work with a guy who was chosen as editor, but he had never worked in media. He decided to resign, and now I have this new title of Interim Editor-in-Chief.”

Sher has a few college degrees. He studied business and management as well as philosophy and theology. He spent a few years working in Germany – he claims that he loves to work – although it was difficult to adjust to that society. “I never integrated with the society,” he said. “So, once I came back, I had this kind of passion to just work. I used to work multiple things, and at the same time, and it was a good experience.”

At 27 years old, Sher is setting up for his career to take off. His work at ACI MENA covers a group of people who, in the past, have rarely been the subjects of everyday mass media.

“They established a new branch of EWTN to broadcast the news of the Christians to tell people who we are,” he said. “There’s always this problem that people can’t hear us. And people couldn’t know the truth from us.”

ACI MENA covers much of Iraq because that’s where it’s based. It has, however, already established a reporting network in Lebanon. The outlet gets exclusive interviews with church leaders around the Middle East and syndicates other EWTN coverage.

Some of ACI MENA’s recent headlines include the testimony and teachings of Lebanese priests, coverage of the Vatican and the Pope, two Nigerian priests who were kidnapped, and the goings-on of the local Chaldean community in Erbil.

Sher calls his new outlet a bridge between the Western world and the Arab world. “We transfer and we translate any related news from EWTN or the Catholic News Agency (CNA). We translate stories from the Vatican and Pope Francis. We have our own editor in Rome as well. We have correspondents in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Sudan, and we’re working on more.”

For now, ACI MENA will stay focused on producing written articles for the website. Though Sher couldn’t reveal any specific plans for the outlet’s future, he mentioned that they are looking into establishing a TV channel.

ACI MENA can be found online in Arabic at acimena.com.