Shafaq News- Erbil
The Vatican’s new ambassador to Iraq, Miroslaw Wachowski, praised Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Friday for his role in “protecting Christians and promoting coexistence” among Iraq’s religious and ethnic communities during a meeting in Erbil.
According to the Kurdish presidency, Wachowski also commended the Region’s culture of tolerance and mutual acceptance, reaffirming the Holy See’s interest in the Region’s stability and development.
For his part, Barzani congratulated Wachowski on assuming his new post and expressed Kurdistan’s full support for the success of his diplomatic mission.
Both sides also discussed Iraq’s political situation, regional developments, and the importance of strengthening relations between Iraq, the Kurdistan Region, and the Vatican.
The Christian population in Iraq declined dramatically over the past two decades, from about 1.5 million before the 2003 US-led invasion to between 150,000 and 250,000 today, according to Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, former Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The decline accelerated after ISIS seized large parts of northern Iraq in 2014, displacing hundreds of thousands of Christians and other minorities, many of whom fled to the Kurdistan Region.