Baghdad – The Patriarchate of Babylon is studying the project for the creation of a “Council of Churches in Iraq” bringing together all the Churches and ecclesial communities present on Iraqi territory, and to be recognized as a unitary body able to also interact with the central government and local administrative and political powers. This is what official sources of the Chaldean Patriarchate consulted by Fides report. All the Catholic Churches, Orthodox, Eastern pre-Chalcedonian and Evangelical Protestant communities should adhere to the Council. The new body, according to the proposal of the Chaldean Patriarchate, should be a tool used by the Churches and Christian communities in order to deal with the consequences of conflict with the jihadists of the Islamic State (Daesh) and problems related to the sectarian divisions that even threaten the Country’s unity.
Already in late October (see Fides 27/10/2016), Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako Louis Raphael I relaunched the proposal to proclaim 2017 as the “Year of Peace in Iraq”, promoted and supported by the Churches and Christian communities through moments of ecumenical prayer and shared ecclesial and cultural initiatives, to promote in favor of all the Iraqi people the “culture of peace and coexistence” in the Country torn by sectarian strife.
Source: Fides News
