HOLY FATHER WELCOMES PATRIARCH BIDAWID, IRAQI DELEGATION

VATICAN CITY, MAY 14, 1999 (VIS) - The following declaration was made today by Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls on the visit to the Pope by an Iraqi delegation:

"The Pope today received an Iraqi delegation led by His Beatitude Raphael I Bidawid, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans and composed of Mr. Hussein Ismail Hayder, imam of the mosque of Khadum (Shi'ite), Mr. Abdul Latif Hemim Mohammed, president of the Administrative Council of the Iraqi Islamic Bank (Sunni), and Mr. Samer Said Al-Najar of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The aim of the mission was to pay homage to His Holiness and thank him for the solicitude he shows for the condition of the Iraqi people.

"Following the meeting with the Holy Father, the delegation was received by the Secretary of State (Cardinal Angelo Sodano) and by Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States.

"The meetings also offered the possibility of examining the situation in the country, and allowed the Holy See to reaffirm the necessity that it is, above all, the Iraqi people who should be the center of efforts by the international community to reach a just and definitive solution to the crisis as soon as possible."

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