Pope prays for Iraqi people
Pope John Paul II today said he was praying for the Iraqi people after militants bombed two churches in Mosul, the latest anti-Christian violence in the country.
“I express my spiritual closeness to the faithful, shocked by the attacks,” John Paul said, speaking from his apartment window above St Peter’s Square on the Roman Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception.
He said he was praying that Iraqis “may finally know a time of reconciliation and peace”.
In co-ordinated attacks yesterday, militants bombed an Armenian Catholic and a Chaldean church in Mosul, injuring three people. Islamic militants have regularly targeted Iraq’s various ethnic communities, including the minority Christians.
