Ancient Christian sect mourns Pope in Iraq

Ankawa, Iraq - Followers of the ancient Chaldean Christian sect gathered for mass among the mountains of northern Iraq on Sunday to mourn the death of Pope John Paul, watched over by guards armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

"All Christians, even the Muslims, will hope for another pope to re-establish peace in this world," said Rabban al-Qas, a Kurd who is the Chaldean bishop of Amadiya.

In remote parts of northern Iraq, many people had not heard the news of the pope's death until they arrived for dawn mass.

"This news touches me greatly," said one worshipper, 26- year-old Wamibh Yuhana, adding that one lesson Iraqis could learn from the Pope was that he had forgiven the man who tried to assassinate him.

"It's difficult to forgive. We are trying to practise the principles of Christ," Yuhana said. "So we forgive even the ones who target us, the ones who want to kill us."

Chaldeans, who use the ancient Aramaic language to conduct mass, make up the largest of Iraq's Christian sects, and say they have around 400,000 followers in Iraq. The total Christian community in Iraq is estimated at around 750,000.

Christians have been targeted many times by Iraq's insurgents. Several times, suicide bombers have attacked Christian churches, sometimes in coordinated waves of bombings. Earlier this year, an Iraqi Christian leader was kidnapped, and representatives of the Vatican helped negotiate his release.

Father Louis Kakos, who led the dawn mass in Ankawa, said the next pope would have a role to play in Middle East peace.

"The next pope will have a special role in bringing peace to countries like Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, who have a number of Christians but where the situation is unstable," he said.