Francis sends envoy to victims of Islamist terror in Iraq

One of the Vatican’s foremost Middle East experts has been sent to Iraq to help thousands of Christians driven from their homes by terrorists of the newly established Islamic State (IS, formerly Isis).

Pope Francis sent Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who was papal nuncio to the country from 2001 to 2006, and was the only diplomat to remain in Baghdad during the US/UK invasion to remove Saddam Hussein. Cardinal Filoni, the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, was to travel to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad on Tuesday, to distribute funds and show the Pope’s “spiritual support and the Church’s solidarity with the people who are suffering”, papal spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said.

Speaking at last Sunday’s Angelus in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said the current violence “offends God and humanity”. The Islamists have carried out a programme of driving Christians and other minorities from home, beheading them, crucifying them, burying them alive, raping women, cutting children in half, and drove thousands of members of the Yazidi faith to a bare mountain without food and water.

Most of those fleeing are now seeking refuge in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, but the city is also threatened by IS terrorists. United States air strikes this week attempted to force back the Islamists from the Kurdish capital. On Sunday the Pope called on the international community and Iraq’s beleaguered Government to “put a stop to these crimes”.

Cardinal Filoni said that Francis “would have liked to have gone himself among these poor people” and said the Pope had entrusted him with this task, so that they would know that the Church “has not abandoned them”. He wanted to bring them the Pope’s “hope and spiritual, moral and psychological support”, he said.

The Vatican was initially criticised by Eastern Christians for not doing more to help tens of thousands of people, mostly Christian, forced from their homes by IS terrorists when they took the second city of Mosul last month. But Francis has been increasingly open in his condemnation of the terror. In a 9 August letter to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon that was released on Wednesday, he said: “The violent attacks that are sweeping across Northern Iraq cannot but awaken the consciences of all men and women of goodwill to concrete acts of solidarity ... Mr secretary general, [I] place before you the tears, the suffering and the heartfelt cries of despair of Christians and other religious minorities of the beloved land of Iraq … renewing my urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humani-tarian tragedy now under way.”

Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs meeting in Lebanon have denounced the “international silence” on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Speaking on 7 August in Beirut, the heads of the Eastern Churches called for Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and “other innocents” and asked for those states financing the terrorists – reported to include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait – to stop their support.

In the UK, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he would cut short his summer holiday, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols urged the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, to increase Britain’s role in the existing aid efforts. In a letter released on Wednesday, Cardinal Nichols called for more humanitarian aid and “a sustained focus on creating a more stable society”.