by John L Allen, Jr. | ncronline.org

Warning that a Middle East empty of Christians would be "just like the Taliban," Iraq's most senior Catholic leader pointedly called on the West to show greater concern for suffering Christians in the region.

"We feel forgotten and isolated," said Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, head of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church.

"We sometimes wonder, if they kill us all, what would be the reaction of Christians in the West? Would they do something then?"

Sako made clear he's not asking for a mobilization "to protect Christians," but rather Western efforts to support "harmonious societies for all human beings", based on "a civil state in which the only criterion is citizenship grounded in full equality under the law."

Sako said that at the moment, the influence of Western nations in the region seems to be based primarily on self-interest.

"All they do is create problems, sell weapons and take oil," he said, adding bluntly, "This is a sin."

In terms of the Catholic response, Sako proposed that the church produce a new document directed specifically at Muslims to lay out the case for moving beyond tolerance to "religious freedom and full citizenship."

Sako spoke Dec. 14 as part of a conference in Rome organized by the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University, part of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

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