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10 giugno 2009

Iraq: Msgr. Warduni (Baghdad) "Stability and work needed"

Source: SIR

The Middle-East bishops, friends with the Focolare Movement, are meeting in Amman from June 15th to 18th. Theme of the meeting: “Bringing Christ to Society”. About thirty bishops are expected in the Jordan capital, including Card. Ennio Antonelli, president of the Papal Council for the Family. “In the light of several local situations, too, we'll try to take stock of the condition of Christians in the Middle East”, said to SIR the Chaldean Patriarchal Vicar of Baghdad, Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, who's going to illustrate today's Iraqi condition in Amman. “At present, there are several improvements, even though problems are not missing. We are afraid of the future because there is not the necessary stability – said the Vicar -. The population is always in critical condition, above all, for lack of work. The reconstruction of the country is going on slowly because of political divisions”. As for the Christians, Warduni notices “decrease in emigration, even though – he said – it might resume now, at the end of the school year. The Church is going on with its activities: in the last few days, the theological faculty of the Babel College, in Ankawa, in the North, issued its diplomas. The new graduates include also a girl. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the Americans to refurbish the original seat of the College in Baghdad, once they used it for one year and a half”.