Pope's envoy, Chaldean Patriarch beg international help for Iraqi Christians

August 18, 2014

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, the Pope’s personal envoy to Iraq, has joined with Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako in an appeal for international intervention to stop the persecution of Christians and Yezidis.

The prelates exhorted international leaders to “take their moral responsibilities seriously.” They called for:

• immediate delivery of basic humanitarian supplies;
• liberation of villages that have been seized by Islamic militants; and
• protection of those villages, to allow residents to return.

“The hope of these people must not be allowed to die!” the cardinals said. “Many times did the people cry out to us: Help us to return to just living our lives!”

The cardinal and the Chaldean Patriarch reported that they had spoken with Kurdish political authorities and visited with Christian and Yezidi refugees in the region around Erbil, where tens of thousands are living in precarious circumstances.

 

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Further information:

• Press release of the Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans (Fides)
• Chaldean Patriarch, papal envoy appeal for international aid (Vatican Radio)