ACTA APOSTOLICAE SEDIS

C O M M E N T A R I U M O F F I C I A L E

Directio: Palazzo Apostolico - Città del Vaticano - Administratio: Libreria Editrice Vaticana

ACTA FRANCISCI PP.

EPISTULA

Ad Secretarium Generalem Unitarum Nationum Coetus (O.N.U.) de Rerum Condicione in Septentrionali Regione Iraquiae.

His Excellency Mr Ban Ki-moon Secretary General United Nations Organization

It is with a heavy and anguished heart that I have been following the

dramatic events of these past few days in Northern Iraq where Christians

and other religious minorities have been forced to flee from their homes and

witness the destruction of their places of worship and religious patrimony.

Moved by their plight, I have asked His Eminence Cardinal Fernando Filoni,

Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, who served

as the Representative of my predecessors, Pope St John Paul II and Pope

Benedict XVI, to the people in Iraq, to manifest my spiritual closeness

and to express my concern, and that of the entire Catholic Church, for

the intolerable suffering of those who only wish to live in peace, harmony

and freedom in the land of their forefathers.

In the same spirit, I write to you, Mr Secretary-General, and place

before you the tears, the suffering and the heartfelt cries of despair of

Christians and other religious minorities of the beloved land of Iraq. In

An. et vol. CVI 5 Septembris 2014 N. 9