Pope Sends Personal Envoy to Iraq

Pope Francis announced on August 8 that he will station a personal envoy in Iraq. Francis selected Cardinal Fernando Filoni to fill the position, and the two men met on August 10 to discuss details of the mission.

The main purpose of Filoni’s presence in Iraq will be to show solidarity with the nation’s Christians who are being targeted by the militant Islamic State. The terrorist group, which is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, demands that Christians either convert to Islam, pay a heavy tax, or face execution.

In the last decade, more than 1 million Iraqi Christians have been killed or have had to flee the country because of jihadi persecution. A significant percentage of that has happened just in the last few months by the hands of Islamic State militants. The increasingly ruthless persecution infuriates the Pope in part because Christianity predates Islam in Iraq by several centuries.

In a strongly worded message on Sunday, the pope said the news from Iraq “leaves us in dismay and disbelief.”

Francis urged the international community to find “an efficient political solution that can stop these crimes and re-establish the rule of law.”

The Trumpet is closely following the Catholic Church’s reaction to the Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

The bloody Crusades of 11th and 12th centuries reveal that the Catholic Church has always had a special interest in the Holy Land. The rise of radical Islam in Iraq—and in other Middle Eastern nations —has the Vatican concerned.

The Trumpet predicts that another violent clash between the Catholic Church and Muslims will soon take place. The radical Islamic takeover of much of the Middle East which is now underway, will lead directly to that bloody conflict.

For daily updates on this forecast, follow theTrumpet.com.