Iraq's foreign minister met with Pope John Paul II on Dec. 13 and pledged the commitment of his interim government to protect the country's Christians from terrorist attacks.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari delivered a message to the pope from Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who had talks with John Paul at the Vatican on Nov. 4. At that meeting, the pope made a special plea for the dwindling Christian community, which he noted has been “present in Iraq from apostolic times.”
The Iraqi government requested the audience with the pope following the bombings Dec. 7 of an Armenian Orthodox and a Chaldean Catholic church in the tense city of Mosul, northwest of Baghdad. Zebari also met with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state.
“The minister thanked his holiness and his collaborators for the aid always shown toward Iraq and then assured him of the commitment of his own government to promoting religious freedom and, in particular, the defense of the Christian community,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a brief statement.
There were an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion last year. Large numbers have fled in the wake of terrorist attacks targeting individuals, Christian-owned businesses and churches.
The Vatican spokesman said that the pope and Sodano deplored “the sad plague of terrorism” in Iraq and said they hoped for “a rapid return to respect for the moral values that are the basis of every civilization.”
At a news conference in a Rome hotel and in a television interview, the Iraqi foreign minister said his government believed that Iraq's Christian community had an important role to play in building a democratic society.
Iraq's new ambassador to the Vatican, Albert Yelda, said the interim government is considering paying “a form of compensation' for the destruction of churches. Zebari blamed the Mosul bombings on “terrorists from outside” Iraq.
Religion News Service