The Pope’s special envoy to Iraq is to meet the Eastern Patriarchs in Washington D.C. in the coming weeks, the Holy See’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva has said.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, speaking during a press conference at Communion and Liberation’s Rimini Meeting, said Cardinal Fernando Filoni will be meeting the patriarchs and the prefect of the Congregation of Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, in the U.S. capital.
“It will seek to involve the American bishops and so influence public opinion,” Archbishop Tomasi said. “Other initiatives will be undertaken in Geneva.”
Cardinal Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, returned last week after a seven day visit to the war-torn region of northern Iraq where many Christians and other religious minorities are being persecuted by Islamists.
