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Vatican official: Iraq's Christian community at risk of disappearing
13-08-2009
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A leading Vatican official called for greater protection of Iraq's beleaguered Christian minority, saying the disappearance of Christianity from the country would be an enormous religious and cultural loss for everyone.
Archbishop Fernando Filoni, who served as the Vatican's nuncio to Iraq from 2001 to 2006, said it was important that Iraqi Christians stem the widespread emigration of their community.
That can only happen if they are given a sound basis for hope in the future, he said.
"The authorities must do everything they can so that Christians are a respected and integral part of the life of the country, even if they are a minority," Archbishop Filoni said in an interview Aug. 11 with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
The Iraqi government meets regularly with church leaders and in theory is committed to protecting Christians, but "this also has to be translated into concrete facts," he said.
The archbishop pointed to the recent restitution of three church-run schools as an important step in the right direction.
The schools, two in Baghdad and one in Kirkuk, will be run by Chaldean Catholic nuns, who managed them before they were nationalized under Saddam Hussein.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20090812.htm
