Pope acknowledges Iraq's beleaguered Catholic by naming cardinal

Published: 2007-10-17

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Iraq's beleaguered Catholic minority received major recognition when Pope Benedict XVI named the head of the Chaldean patriarchate a cardinal. Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad was designated to receive a red hat when the pope named 23 new cardinals Oct. 17; they were to be elevated at a consistory Nov. 24. The cardinal-designate has stood out as the voice of the ongoing suffering of all Iraqis, not just the Christian minority. At 80, Cardinal-designate Delly will not be eligible to vote in a conclave. He was elected patriarch by the synod of bishops of the Chaldean church in December 2003, just nine months after a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq. The violence soon escalated as fighting among Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslims and other factions erupted and worsened. As Christians became increasingly targeted, he repeatedly stressed that the Christian minority always has considered itself to be Iraqi and recalled how members of different faiths had once coexisted in peace.

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