"Another group from Lyon, France, will help make the Way of the Cross using as the stations villages from Telaskov to Bakova, a walk of two to three hours," Patriarch Sako told CNS.

This peace initiative is meant to demonstrate the bond among Iraqi communities and churches around the world during the years of suffering and persecution. These once-flourishing Christian towns have formed the bedrock of centuries of Christian history and were recently liberated from the brutal control of the so-called Islamic State militants.

Telaskov translates as "Bishop's Hill" and, before the Islamic State takeover, was a thriving, modern town of 11,000. But when ISIS attacked in 2014, Christians fled. Although it is currently a ghost town, there are hopes that it will revive when mines and booby traps left by the militants are removed and its infrastructure rebuilt.

Last September, representatives of the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Irbil told the U.S. Congress that they had received no U.N. or U.S. government-administered humanitarian aid for 70,000 Christian or Yezidi survivors of what has been now designated as a genocide against them and other Iraqi minorities, carried out by the Islamic State since 2014.

Before the U.S.-led 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christian population numbered 1.4 million. After being killed or driven out, they number only 250,000 people. Despite these difficulties, Iraq's Christian community remains the Middle East's fourth-largest indigenous Christian community.

"At the moment, we are going through the tunnel, and we need to work hard and pray without ceasing for peace in our country and the region and for the safe return of the forcibly displaced people to their homes and properties," Patriarch Sako said in a recent Lenten address.

He urged the faithful "to rely on wisdom and patience and to stay united together on the land where we were born (and have) lived for 1,400 years together with Muslims, sharing one civilization."

Ahead of Easter, Patriarch Sako said he hopes for "a real resurrection, a quick return of displaced to their homes, and a restoration of peace at our churches, country and the whole world."