Rome - Iraq's top Christian cleric, Chaldean Patriarch of
Baghdad Emmanuel Karim-Delly, on Friday urged thousands of Iraqi
Christians who have fled the violence in the country to return home.
Karim-Delly made the appeal in Rome where he will be inducted as
Iraq's first cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in a ceremony in St
Peter's Square on Saturday.
Speaking at a news conference, the 80-year-old patriarch described
his elevation to cardinal as a honour for 'all Iraqis and not just
Christians.'
Karim-Delly said he had assured Iraqi leaders he would continue to
use his position 'to convince those who have left Iraq to return and
help build the country.'
The mostly Chaldean Christians still living in Iraq are now
estimated to number 600,000 compared to the 1.2 million living in the
country before Saddam Hussein's 2003 overthrow.
The Baghdad patriarch said he had recently discussed with members
of Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated government measures on safeguarding
Iraq's Christian community, which makes up around 3 per cent of the
population.
Pressed by a reporter for details on the measures discussed the
patriarch chose not to answer, but said the situation in 'tortured
Iraq' was gradually improving.
He also said several churches forced to shut down because of the
sectarian violence had recently reopened their doors to the faithful.
Karim-Delly in the past has denounced what he called the
'persecution' of Christians in Iraq, but on Friday he was more
reconciliatory towards the Baghdad government.
Iraqi leaders had given him 'full support' as shown by a
government delegation headed by Human Rights Minister Wijdan Mikhail
Salim, herself a Chaldean, who will attend Saturday's ceremony.
'He has done all Iraqis proud,' said the minister, who was also at
Friday's news conference.
Karim-Delly is to be made a cardinal along with 22 other clerics
at Saturday's ceremony.
Benedict has repeatedly expressed concern over conditions faced by
Christians in Islamic countries and the decision to promote to
cardinal the Iraqi cleric is widely seen as one more opportunity for
the pontiff to draw attention to the issue.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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