Iraqi Christian refugees crowding churches in Kurdistan, prelate reports
June 06, 2014
A flood of Iraqi Christian refugees is straining the resources of the Chaldean Catholic Church in the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
More than 12,000 Christian families from Baghdad, Mosul, and other Iraqi cities have fled to Kurdistan, Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda of Erbil told Aid to the Church in Need. "In Baghdad and elsewhere local Christians are under constant fear that they may fall victim to bomb blasts, murders and abductions," he explained.
While churches in other cities have closed down because the Christian population has vanished, in Erbil the churches are crowded beyond their capacity, the archbishop said. The Catholic community must “urgently build new churches” to serve their needs, he said.
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