Zenit News Agency, Italy
Dec 14 2004

Iraqi Tells Pope That Christians Will Be Defended

Foreign Minister Meets in Wave of Attacks on Churches

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 13, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari told John Paul II that his government is committed to
defending the Mideast nation’s Christians, targets of terrorist
attacks in recent months.

Zebari met the Pope today in audience and afterward conferred with
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, according to
Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro Valls.

“In the course of the conversations a review was made of the
situation in Iraq and the Middle East in general,” the director of
the Vatican press office said in a statement.

The foreign minister “thanked His Holiness and his aides for the help
they have always given to Iraq and confirmed his government’s
commitment to promote religious freedom and, in particular, the
defense of Christian communities,” Navarro Valls stated.

“In the discussion with the minister the painful plague of terrorism
was deplored once again, hoping for a speedy return to respect for
moral values which are the basis of all civilizations,” the
spokesman’s statement concluded.

Two attacks in Mosul on Dec. 7 destroyed an Armenian Catholic church
in Mosul and the Chaldean bishop’s palace.

They were the latest of a series of attacks against churches, which
began in early August, when four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul
were hit, killing 11 people and wounding dozens. Attacks against
stores owned by Christians had started earlier.

Christians in Iraq number about 800,000, or 3% of the population.
Chaldean-rite Catholics account for 70% of the Christians.

Zebari’s visit to the Vatican came weeks after the Pope’s meeting
with Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Nov. 4.

In that meeting, John Paul II condemned the present “senseless
violence” and encouraged the establishment of democracy in Iraq.

On Nov. 15, the Holy Father received the letters of credence of
Albert Edward Ishmael Yelda, the new ambassador of Iraq to the Holy
See.

Through him, the Pontiff appealed to the Iraqi government to
recognize “the right to freedom of worship and religious teaching,”
and assured him of the Catholic Church’s collaboration and, in
particular, of Chaldean Catholics, to “build a more peaceful and
stable nation.”