Vatican says Iraqi Christians were safer under Saddam

This video is called Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.

“Celeste Zappala, my mother, [and mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq] speaking at the National Cathedral on 3/16/07” against George W. Bush’s Iraq war.

From the Catholic News Service:

Iraqi Christians were safer under Saddam, says Vatican official

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Although Iraq has a democratic government, Iraqi Christians were safer and had more protection under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, said the future head of the Vatican’s interreligious dialogue council.

During the buildup to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who will become head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue Sept. 1, had criticized the U.S. government’s plan of preventative war and said a unilateral war against Iraq would be a “crime against peace.”

In a recent interview with the Italian magazine 30 Giorni, the cardinal said his early criticisms had been prophetic.

“The facts speak for themselves. Alienating the international community (with the U.S. push for war) was a mistake,” he said in the magazine’s Aug. 10 issue. A copy of the interview was released in advance to journalists.

He said an “unjust approach” was used to unseat Saddam from power, resulting in the mounting chaos in Iraq today. …

Cardinal Tauran is a longtime veteran of the Vatican’s diplomatic service and a specialist in international affairs. He was Pope John Paul II’s “foreign minister,” the official who dealt with all aspects of the Vatican’s foreign policy from 1990 to 2003.