Your gift counts double until 5/31: $25,454 to go in our Easter Campaign. Please help now!

Key Russian Orthodox official criticizes invasion of Iraq

CWN - March 29, 2011

Lamenting indifference to the worldwide persecution of Christians, the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical officer said that the Western invasion of Iraq brought suffering to numerous Christians.

“It is today when all states have undertaken obligations to protect human rights, outflow of Christians from certain countries has increased,” said Metropolitan Hilarion. “I believe it proves the failure of modern world policy on religious freedom and lack of interest to religious education.”

“According to some data, half of 1,4 million Christian population has left [Iraq] since 2003,” he continued. “Without giving any evaluations to political situation in Iraq before NATO interference, I'd like to mention that Christians there were not physically exterminated. Foreign military invasion has made many Christians hostages of insufficiently considered NATO actions.”

Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

Easter Campaign:
Progress toward our Spring 2013 goal ($25,454 to go):
$80,000.00 $54,545.55
32% 68%
Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.

Catholic World News Email Newsletter
Donate to Support this Site: Your contribution will be put to good work.
Tour the CatholicCulture.org Site
Shop Amazon to Raise Money for Catholic Culture

Recent Catholic Commentary

The sad decline of self-government 4 hours ago
That impromptu exorcism again 8 hours ago
The Mystery of the Spirit 23 hours ago
Against a Facile Assurance of Salvation, the Need for Mystery 24 hours ago
Making Sense of Society: The Ebook May 21

Top Catholic News

Most Important Stories of the Last 30 Days
Pope strongly supports call for reform in religious life CWN - May 8