Iraq's Aziz to pray for peace
Monday, February 10, 2003 Posted: 9:35 AM EST (1435 GMT)
ROME, Italy -- Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz is set to pray for peace at the tomb of Saint Francis in the central Italian city of Assisi.
As his country continued to face the threat of military action by the United States and Britain, Aziz will meet Pope John Paul II on Friday at the Vatican and then travel to the city where St. Francis was born and buried.
"This is an extremely important gesture for us because we want to offer the world a sign of peace," Father Vincenzo Coli, the head of the Franciscan monks in Assisi, told Reuters.
"This is our way to try to raise awareness about the need for peace and the fact that he is coming here to pray with us is very encouraging."
Aziz, who is one of Iraq's most prominent Christians, is a member of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Rite church based mostly in Iraq but in communion with Rome.
While Aziz is in Assisi he will be shown a horn which was given to Saint Francis by a sultan in 1219.
Saint Francis travelled to the Middle East with the crusaders and is believed to have visited what is now modern-day Iraq.
Details of Aziz's visit to Italy came on Monday as the pope's personal peace envoy set off for the Middle East to meet Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray is carrying a letter from the pope to the Iraqi leader.
"The pope is not resigned (to war). He has decided to go to the extreme limits of hope and I am his messenger," Etchegaray told reporters as he left Rome.
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