Iraqi prime minister calls return of Christians a national priority
Caroline MolloyIraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has described the return of Christian families who left the country during decades of conflict and instability as a national and government priority.
Al-Zaidi made the commitment during a July meeting in Baghdad with Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Paul III Nona and other Church representatives. The prime minister said the government was prepared to provide practical support to Christian families who return to Iraq.
One element of that support would make returning families eligible for Iraq’s program to allocate one million residential plots, according to reports about the meeting.
Aid to the Church in Need estimates that Iraq’s Christian population has fallen from about 1.5 million in 2000 to fewer than 300,000 today after years of war, extremist violence and migration.
Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, who attended the meeting, said the prime minister also encouraged Christian businesspeople living abroad to return and invest in Iraq, including in education and health care.
Iraq’s Catholic bishops later met on Aug. 28 for the first time in five years, with the future of the country’s Christian communities among the issues facing Church leaders.
