Iraqi Christians set up council for political voice, says archbishop

Published: 2008-02-19

LONDON (CNS) -- Christians in northern Iraq have been setting up a 30-member council to give them a political voice, said Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq. Archbishop Sako said the plan for the council was in its final stages and that it had the backing of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "For too long, the Christians have struggled to get their views heard in the main debates of the day because so often they don't speak with one voice," the archbishop told Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity helping persecuted Christians. "The main purpose is that Christians should have a united front," he said from Kirkuk in a Feb. 18 telephone interview with Aid to the Church in Need in London. "If we have demands, we should present them together. We should not be separated and thereby enfeebled." The archbishop, who will be the first president of the council, added that in early February he had discussed the plans with Talabani, who responded favorably.

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