Brief Analysis
The Vatican’s outreach to Iraq is laudable in its goal of decreasing religious violence, but Western officials should be realistic about what engagement with Shia religious leaders can accomplish in the near term.
As part of his March 5-8 trip to Iraq, Pope Francis will visit the holy city of Najaf to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the world’s most prominent Shia Muslim authorities. According to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the trip’s purpose is “to console and encourage” all those who have struggled under Iraq’s waves of invasion, civil war, sectarian strife, terrorism, and instability not only the Muslim majority, but also Catholics and other religious minorities. Sandri noted that Iraq’s Christian community has been attacked and persecuted to such a degree that its population decreased from 1.5 million in 2003 to less than 300,000 today.
Pope Francis in Iraq: Everything you need to know about the historic trip
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By Lisa Zengarini
On the occasion of the Feast of Saint Maron, patron of the Maronite Church, on February 9, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, participated in a Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Pontifical Maronite College in Rome. At the end of the Liturgy, which was presided over by the Procurator of the Maronite Patriarch to the Holy See, Bishop Rafic El Warcha , the Argentinian prelate addressed the participants with a greeting speech in which he focused on the dramatic situation in Lebanon following the two terrible explosions which devastated Beirut on August 4.
The Tablet December 18, 2020
Volunteers in Mosul, Iraq, clean the Syriac Catholic Church of St. Thomas Oct. 28, 2020. News reports said the effort “seeks to sweep away the horrors” of three years of rule by Islamic State militants and welcome back members of minority faiths who fled IS. (Photo: Abdullah Rashid/Reuters via CNS)
By Inés San Martín
ROSARIO, Argentina (Crux) According to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who heads the Vatican’s office for Eastern Churches, there’s “great concern” on the part of the Catholic Church regarding the return of Christians to Iraq.
“It will be very difficult for Christians who’ve fled to return if the conditions of safety and access to an education are not guaranteed,” Cardinal Sandri said Dec. 17.
cardinal timothy dolan. i m not surprised he s buzzed about here in the states but is there talk about him in the vatican? there s definitely talk about him in the vatican. historically also profound while at the same time being filled with cheerfulness, optimism about the faith. this is a part of the legacy of pope benedict, that he s left this legacy of the joy that all of us as christians could have. and i think cardinal dolan fills every room that he entered with joy. born in argentina to italian parents, i guess he pushes two geographic buttons. what else? i once asked cardinal sandri, do you think of yourself as an argentine? and he said, yes, i do during tt
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