Source: SIR
A condemnation of the violence that is affecting Iraq, including the Christian communities, and a wish that “the way to peace and development may be firmly found through dialogue and cooperation between all the ethnic and religious groups”: this came up today from the meeting between Benedict XVI and Nouri Kamel Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq, in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo. The talks, according to a release from the Vatican Newsroom, “have taken place in a friendly climate, reviewed some fundamental aspects of the Iraqi situation, looking at the regional context as well”. Special attention, goes on the release, “was paid to the problem of the many Iraqi refugees inside and outside the country who need assistance, possibly with a view to a longed-for return home”.
“The violence that keeps affecting the different parts of the country nearly every day – it states – without sparing the Christian communities, that feel a deep need for more security, has been condemned again. The wish was expressed that Iraq may firmly find the way to peace and development through dialogue and cooperation between all the ethnic and religious groups, including the minorities, that, respectful of their respective identities and in a spirit of reconciliation and in the pursuit of the common good, they may join forces and take care of the moral and civil reconstruction of the country”. In this connection, they insisted on “the importance of inter-religious dialogue as a way to religious understanding and civil cohabitation”. The Prime Minister invited the Holy Father to visit Iraq. Earlier on, Al Maliki had met the Secretary of State, card. Tarcisio Bertone, and the Secretary for the Relations with the States, mgr. Dominique Mamberti.
