One of the 23 cardinals to be installed on Nov. 24 by Pope Benedict XVI is Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad who heads a 2,000-year-old Christian community.He is an outspoken advocate of the rights of minority Christians from persecution and violence.
Delly is Iraq's first prelate in modern times to be elevated to cardinal.
His appointment reflects the concern of the pope on the protection of the Chaldean Church, an Eastern Rite church affiliated with the Roman Catholics.
Most of Iraq's half a million Chaldeans, which retain their unique rites, compose the majority of Christians that include Assyrian Christians, Armenian Christians and Sabeans, an ancient sect.
A fluent speaker of Italian, French and his native Arabic as well as some English, Delly and the Assyrian patriarch issued a call for help this summer after a Chaldean priest and three assistants were killed in Mosul.
The cardinal comes from Mosul, in northern Iraq, where Christian rites have been practiced for nearly 2,000 years.
In Baghdad and Mosul, even with a shrinking Christian population, Sunday Mass is sung in Aramaic, one of the Semitic languages spoken at the time of Jesus.
"Christians and Muslims have lived together here for 1,400 years," Cardinal Delly said. "We have much in common; in Iraq, the Christian house is next to the Muslim house."
"Those who kill don't kill only Christians. They kill Muslims as well - the situation is the same for both," he said.
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