“The Synod will serve the cause of Christianity so that the faithful will stay in the Middle East. We will work to strengthen our faith so that everyone will become an exemplary Christian, in the eyes of the faithful of the other religions as well”. This is what the patriarch of Baghdad, card. Emmanuel III Delly, wishes for in connection with the Special Assembly of the Episcopal Synod for the Middle East, due to take place from 10th to 24th October 2010, about: “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: communion and testimony: ‘the multitude of those who had become believers had one heart and one soul’ (At 4,32)”. In an interview with SIR (agensir.it), the cardinal states that “we’re working to set the organisational machine in motion. There are no definite deadlines yet but we intend to have the Lineamenta by 2009 and the Instrumentum laboris by the very first months of 2010”. Then, speaking of the presence of Muslim and Jewish delegates at the Synod, Delly states that this “will depend on the ecclesial authority”. In the interview, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad also lingers on the situation of the Iraqi Christians, repeating his no to the Nineveh Plain and saying that “in the country there is no persecution of the Christians. Sometimes there is some individual discrimination but in our country Christians and Muslims have been living together for centuries and we will keep doing that”.

© SIR  - sept 24, 2009