Church in Iraq ‘ruined’ – Patriarch

IRAQ’s most senior priest has described as “frightening” the exodus of Christians from the country in the 11 years since the American-led invasion of the predominantly Muslim land, writes Ellen Teague.

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon, Louis Raphaël I Sako, told Agence France-Presse that the Church in Iraq is “ruined”, and he blamed the West for the plight of the country’s Christians, many of whom have emigrated because of the war and the subsequent rise of al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Formerly head of the Archdiocese of Kirkuk and now Archbishop of Baghdad, Patriarch Louis Raphaël said that “1,400 years of Islam could not uproot us from our land and our churches, while the policies of the West have scattered us and distributed us all around the world”. He also criticised “Western countries which encourage migration of Christians”. Iraq’s Christian population has fallen from around 1.5 million in 2003 to 400,000, and widespread emigration is continuing.