Iran bishop expects big turnout for Pope farewell

Deepika, India
Tuesday, April 5, 2005

TEHRAN, Apr 4 (Reuters) In Iran, where the ancient Chaldean Catholic
community is dwarfed by the Muslim majority, Tehran’s church leader
expect a big turnout as the faithful say farewell to Pope John Paul
on Friday.

Tehran’s Chaldean Archbishop Ramzi Garmou says it is often difficult
to get his dwindling flock to mass on Sundays, a working day in Iran.

But on Friday — as the Pontiff’s funeral Mass is being celebrated
on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica — Garmou expects Catholics to
pour into St. Joseph’s church in Tehran.

”People knew him, perhaps more than any pope before,” Garmou told
Reuters today, when asked what the Pontiff meant to Iran’s Chaldeans,
whose fast-emigrating community now numbers only around 8,000.

”I have received many calls offering condolences and asking about
the mass,” he said.

Garmou stressed the antiquity of Iran’s Christians, quoting accounts
of the apostle Saint Thomas spreading Christianity to Persia in the
first century.

Most of Iran’s Christians belong to the Armenian church which is some
100,000 strong. Most Chaldeans live in Iraq.

Chaldeans have emigrated from Iran in droves since the 1979 Islamic
revolution, mainly to Europe and the United States.

Garmou said they were driven by economic factors and fears about the
geopolitical situation in West Asia.

Christian communities are permitted to worship freely in Iran, with
around 67 million Muslims, but are banned from proselytizing