The US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested those waiting deportation on 11 June. Their arrests sparked protests as many of them are Christians and are likely to be persecuted when they get back to Iraq. Read more

But sometimes a footnote can help illuminate a tragedy's unhappy whole.

For decades, the Middle East's increasingly beleaguered Christian communities have suffered from a fatal invisibility in the Western world.

And their plight has been particularly invisible in the United States, which as a majority-Christian superpower might have been expected to provide particular support.

There are three reasons for this invisibility.

The political left in the West associates Christian faith with dead white male imperialism and does not come naturally to the recognition that Christianity is now the globe's most persecuted religion.

And in the Middle East the Israel-Palestine question, with its colonial overtones, has been the left's great obsession, whereas the less ideologically convenient plight of Christians under Islamic rule is often left untouched.

To America's strategic class, meanwhile, the Middle East's Christians simply don't have the kind of influence required to matter.

A minority like the Kurds, geographically concentrated and well-armed, can be a player in the great game, a potential United States ally.

But except in Lebanon, the region's Christians are too scattered and impotent to offer much quid for the superpower's quo.

So whether we're pursuing stability by backing the anti-Christian Saudis or pursuing transformation by toppling Saddam Hussein (and unleashing the furies on Iraq's religious minorities), our policy makers have rarely given Christian interests any kind of due.

Then, finally, there is the American right, where one would expect those interests to find a greater hearing.

But the ancient churches of the Middle East (Eastern Orthodox, Chaldean, Maronites, Copt, Assyrian) are theologically and culturally alien to many American Catholics and evangelicals.

And the great cause of many conservative Christians in the United States is the state of Israel, toward which many Arab Christians harbor feelings that range from the complicated to the hostile. Continue reading

Source

• Ross Douthat in The New York Times

Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.

Patriarch Sako, who is based in Bagdhad, Iraq, was accompanied by a number of prelates of the Chaldean Church from around the world, including the Archbishop of Australia and New Zealand, the Most Reverend Jibrael Kassab.

On Friday morning Patriarch Sako and the bishops who are travelling with him met with Bishop Pat Dunn of Auckland and members of the Auckland diocesan Council of Priests at the diocesan headquarters, Pompallier Centre, and were joined by members of the Chaldean community.

His Beatitude addressed the gathering and thanked Bishop Dunn for his support.

They later travelled to Hamilton to celebrate Mass at St Columba's Church and celebrated a solemn Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral on Saturday afternoon.

There are over 3,000 Chaldean Catholics in New Zealand, mainly in Auckland, but also in Hamilton and Wellington and His Beatitude's visit was timed to observe the 10th anniversary of the establishment of St Addai's Chaldean Catholic church in South Auckland.

While in Rome for Pope Francis' inaugural Mass in March he had an audience with the pope. "He asked me to pray for him," His Beatitude explained. "And I invited him to visit us in Iraq. The pontiff said he looks forward to visiting our country, which is also where Abraham began his journey. His visit would inspire us with courage and hope."

It is reported that Patriarch Sako is "struck by the pope's simplicity and spontaneity".

Image: NZ Catholic - used with permission.