Pope condemns latest attacks on Christian churches in Iraq

Published: 2008-01-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI condemned the latest attacks on Christian churches in Iraq and urged a return to peaceful coexistence among the country's diverse groups. The pope's comments came Jan. 11 in a telegram addressed to Iraqi Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, the Chaldean patriarch. It was sent in the pope's name and signed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. Six churches and three other church-run institutions were damaged and several people injured in bomb attacks over the previous five days in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk. The pope expressed his spiritual closeness to those injured and his solidarity with religious superiors of the church institutions, as well as all Iraqi Christians. "Mindful that such attacks are also directed against the whole people of Iraq, His Holiness appeals to the perpetrators to renounce the ways of violence, which have caused so much suffering to the civilian population," the telegram said.

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