The Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, recently named Iraq’s first cardinal, said Tuesday that rising violence has made life worse for Iraqi Christians since the U.S.-led invasion.But he is optimistic that “peace will prevail,” he said.
Emmanuel III Delly, who will go to the Vatican this month to collect his cardinal’s red hat, must balance the dangers facing his small Catholic community with a mission to reach out to Muslims.
The 80-year-old head of the ancient Chaldean Church in Iraq said that the hopes of freedom in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003 have given way to widespread fear.
“Car bombs, roadside bombs, killings, assassinations. All of these things were not happening in the past. There was stability and security,” he said.
Delly, who was one of 23 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 17, blamed the violence on extremists and said it is his job to reach out to Muslims and followers of other faiths to promote unity.
Delly has been outspoken in the past about the need to protect Christians, who make up less than 3 percent of Iraq’s 26 million population.
In May, he issued a joint statement with Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV of the Catholic Assyrian Church of the East saying that Christians in several Iraqi regions faced “blackmail, kidnapping and displacement” at the hands of Sunni insurgents led by al-Qaida in Iraq.
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