For Iraqi Christians, A Shadow of Insecurity

War Has Brought 'Very Real Freedom' -- and Dangers, Archbishop Says

Islam has been the dominant religion in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley for 1,400 years. Christians have been there for two millenniums and maintain a quiet presence today in what is now Iraq.

Estimates of Iraq's Christian population range from 600,000 to 800,000 -- roughly 3 percent of the overall population of 25 million. No one knows for sure.

Christians, who practiced with relative freedom under Saddam Hussein, are leaving -- or trying to leave -- out of fear that a Muslim-dominated government will control Iraq, said the Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, Latin-rite (Roman Catholic) archbishop of Baghdad.

Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics whose church is autonomous from Rome, with its own liturgy and leadership, but recognizes the authority of the pope. Chaldeans trace their lineage to the Babylonian-Mesopotamian nation of Chaldees, where the patriarch Abraham was born.

Other Christians include Roman and Syriac Catholics; Assyrians (Church of the East); Greek, Syriac and Armenian Orthodox; and Presbyterians, Anglicans and evangelicals.

Sleiman, 58, is a Lebanese-born Carmelite priest who holds doctorates in theology from the Paris Catholic Institute and in anthropology from the Sorbonne. He speaks six languages, including Arabic and English, and became archbishop of Baghdad in January 2001.

Since the U.S.-led coalition began massing troops on Iraq's borders, Sleiman has spoken of the need for a multinational reconstruction and peace effort, criticized the coalition's dismantling of the Iraqi military, condemned foreign evangelicals for openly trying to convert Muslims and urged Iraqi Christians not to desert their country.

Sleiman is scheduled to speak next Saturday at a Carmelite conference in Chicago, hosted by the Washington-based Carmelite Institute. He agreed to an interview with Washington Post staff writer Bill Broadway by e-mail from Baghdad and Rome, where he stopped before flying to the United States. An edited version follows.

Q How many Latin-rite Christians are in Iraq, and where do most of them live and worship?

A The Roman Catholic (Latin) Church in Iraq began as a missionary church. It began in the early 17th century with Carmelite missions in Persia and Mesopotamia. The missionaries baptized many who converted because the Shah Abbas, the Shah of Persia during the first decades of the 17th century, was very tolerant. He encouraged the Holy See to appoint a bishop for them.

From the beginning until now, the Latin Church in Iraq also has been the church of foreigners who belong to the Roman Catholic Church. They once numbered about 60,000, but most disappeared with the first Gulf War because of security concerns and the postwar embargo, which reduced or eliminated their businesses.

The native Iraqi Latins are a very small community that counts about 3,000 people, having lost 2,000 to emigration because of the embargo. Most Latins, like most other Christians in Iraq, have lived in Baghdad since the 1960s. Socioeconomic changes pushed people to reach the capital with the hope of a better life, and the fighting between the government and the Kurds forced from the north many Christians whose villages have been destroyed or occupied.

There are three Latin parishes in Iraq, the principal one [anchored by] the Cathedral of St. Joseph near the center of Baghdad, not far from the National Theatre and the former U.S. Embassy. Most of the Masses are in Arabic, and we have one Mass in English at King Christ Church near Saint Raphael Hospital. Masses in Latin are celebrated on Christmas and Easter.

The Latin Church also has many religious orders, such as Carmelites, Dominicans, Redemptorists and Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. There are many priests, nuns, friars and brothers, along with consecrated laypeople -- those who take vows of obedience, poverty and chastity but do not live in monasteries. They continue their regular activities and live with their families.