Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan, a Syrian Catholic, called on the Iraqi government to ensure the safety of all Iraqi citizens, especially Christians, “who are defenseless, honest and peaceful people.” In his homily at a memorial Mass in Baghdad on Dec. 10 that venerated the “46 new martyrs” of the Syrian Catholic Church killed in a terrorist siege on Oct. 31, the patriarch said the presence of government officials at the liturgy “helped to inspire some trust and feelings of some protection” for the faithful. The patriarch said: “It is the responsibility of the Iraqi government to carry out proper and thorough investigations to uncover the terrorist groups who did plan and finance the carnage...and to bring them publicly to justice…. We need deeds and not just…promises.”
Patriarch Urges Protection in Iraq
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Pope Leo said that if the teen “had come all the way to Rome, then (the pope) could come all the way to the hospital to see him.”
A Reflection for Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Molly Cahill
As emergency workers searched for survivors and tried to recuperate the bodies of the dead, Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for people impacted by the latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen.
The Archdiocese of Miami celebrated the first Mass for detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Trump administration’s controversial immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.