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ANKAWA, Iraq - Followers of the ancient
Chaldean Christian sect gathered for mass among the
mountains of northern Iraq on Sunday to mourn the
death of Pope John Paul, watched over by guards
armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
"All Christians, even the Muslims, will hope for
another pope to re-establish peace in this world,"
said Rabban al-Qas, a Kurd who is the Chaldean
bishop of Amadiya.
In remote parts of northern Iraq, many people had
not heard the news of the pope's death until they
arrived for dawn mass.
"This news touches me greatly," said one worshipper,
26- year-old Wamibh Yuhana, adding that one lesson
Iraqis could learn from the Pope was that he had
forgiven the man who tried to assassinate him.
"It's difficult to forgive. We are trying to
practise the principles of Christ," Yuhana said. "So
we forgive even the ones who target us, the ones who
want to kill us."
Chaldeans, who use the ancient Aramaic language to
conduct mass, make up the largest of Iraq's
Christian sects, and say they have around 400,000
followers in Iraq. The total Christian community in
Iraq is estimated at around 750,000.
Christians have been targeted many times by Iraq's
insurgents. Several times, suicide bombers have
attacked Christian churches, sometimes in
coordinated waves of bombings. Earlier this year, an
Iraqi Christian leader was kidnapped, and
representatives of the Vatican helped negotiate his
release.
Father Louis Kakos, who led the dawn mass in Ankawa,
said the next pope would have a role to play in
Middle East peace.
"The next pope will have a special role in bringing
peace to countries like Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq,
who have a number of Christians but where the
situation is unstable," he said.
© Reuters 2005
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