Jesuit bishop appeals for Iraqi Christians

Bishop Antoine Audo SJ is visiting London this week to call for urgent assistance for Iraqi Christians who are now refugees in Syria.

Bishop Audo, who is based in Aleppo, is responsible for Syria's Chaldean Catholic community.  There has been a huge rise in the Chaldean population in Syria since the US-led invasion in 2003.  The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has reported that 44% of asylum seekers reaching Syria since their register started in 2003 are Christians, despite the fact that Christians form only 4% of the Iraqi population.  Many families live in overcrowded conditions and have lost their livelihoods.  Some rely on help from family members abroad; others meagre state rations.

Before the invasion, Iraq's Christian population was estimated to be around 800,000, the majority living in Baghdad or in and around Mosul in the north.  But bombings, violence, kidnappings, and threats have forced many to flee.

Bishop Audo will be delivering a lecture and taking questions at the Centre for Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue, Heythrop College, Kensington Square, W8, at 2pm this Wednesday (28 November).  He will then be speaking at the 6pm Mass at the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, W1.

At 12 midday on Thursday, 29 November, he and Suha Rassam, author of Christianity in Iraq, will be giving a press conference at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 39 Eccleston Square, SW1.

Bishop Audo will be a guest of Iraqi Christians in Need (ICIN), which was set up earlier this year to provide Christians with money for food, medicine and education.


 Iraqi Christians in Need

 Heythrop Centre for Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue

 Catholic Bishops' Conference