Courtney McGrailThe head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Raphael I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, has told refugees from the city of Mosul that he hopes they can soon return to their homeland.
Addressing his scattered flock through a letter published by Catholic news agencies, the patriarch recalled how a year has passed since “the tragedy of Mosul”, when Iraq’s regular army fled the country’s second city, leaving it in the hands of Islamic State militants who famously marked the door of each Christian household with an ‘N’ for ‘Nazarene’.
“We repeat our appeal to the international community and the religious authorities for a serious effort to contain the crisis, humanly and politically”, Patriarch Louis Raphael wrote, pointing out that “unemployment and poverty, displacement, death and destruction are almost everywhere” in Iraq.
Urging Iraq’s politicians to work towards radical political reform, he called for real reconciliation and recalled the Church’s duties to the displaced peoples of Iraq.