BAGHDAD (AP) — A prominent Iraqi Christian religious leader who left Baghdad amid a political dispute last year returned to the capital this week at the invitation of the country’s prime minister after nine months of self-imposed exile in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region. Cardinal Louis Sako was welcomed warmly by a church packed with members of the country’s Christian minority as he led his first mass in Baghdad on Friday after returning the day before. Sako had withdrawn from his headquarters in Baghdad to the Kurdish regional capital, Irbil, last July after Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked a decree recognizing his position as patriarch of the Chaldeans, Iraq’s largest Christian denomination and one of the Catholic Church’s eastern rites. The Iraqi president downplayed his revocation of Sako’s recognition as bureaucratic housekeeping, claiming it did not diminish the patriarch’s legal or religious status, but Sako called it an affront to the church and said he would not return to Baghdad until his recognition was reinstated. |
MLB extends Draft League through 2030 season and announces plan to expand to eight teamsMan arrested in fatal shooting of Chicago police officer who was heading home from workNorth Carolina congressional candidate suspends campaign days before primary runoffImperial Chinese wine jar stolen from Belgian museumImperial Chinese wine jar stolen from Belgian museumShould you really pay as much as possible into your pension? SIMON LAMBERTM23 rebels seize key smartphone mineral mining town in eastern CongoPeter Oosterhuis, Ryder Cup stalwart and CBS announcer, dies at 75Thousands rally in Slovakia to protest a controversial overhaul of public broadcastingMiddle school focuses on recovery as authorities investigate shooting of armed student