Courtney McGrailThe head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has called for prayer to mark the anniversary of the conquest of the Nineveh Plain by the so-called ‘Islamic State’, when hundreds of thousands of Christians were forced to abandon their homes and flee towards Iraqi Kurdistan.
In a letter to Pope Francis and the bishops of the world, the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Mar Raphael Louis Sako said “I am calling on all Christians all over the world to join us in praying for peace and stability in Iraq on the first anniversary of the conquest by ISIS of the Christian villages of the Nineveh Plain on August 7, 2014, less than a month after that of Mosul”.
In his prayer, he asked for Iraq’s Christians to be given “the strength to stand fast in this violent storm”, and “to reach peace and security before it is too late”.
Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, has said that Pope Francis intends to visit Iraq when it is possible.