April 1, 2015

The Vatican announced this week that Pope Francis is sending his personal envoy to Iraq for Holy Week. (In 2015, Holy Week for Western Christians began last Sunday, Palm Sunday, on March 29, and will end on Easter Sunday, April 5.)  The pope’s envoy carries with him a gift from the diocese of Rome, Easter cake for refugees. This special cake, known as Colomba cake, is a traditional Italian sweet formed into the shape of a dove that symbolizes peace.

Colomba cake is a traditional Italian sweet served at Easter. (Credit: © Enzo De Bernardo, Shutter-stock)

Cardinal Fernanado Filoni traveled to Iraq last August as the personal envoy of Francis. He is traveling to Iraq again, to Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, to convey the pope’s concern for the plight of the region’s Christians and people of other minorities.

Since the summer of 2014, when the militant group Islamic State (ISIS) overran large areas of Iraq, some 125,000 Iraqi Christians have been forced to flee their homes. The city of Arbil forms a safe zone for both Christians and Yazidis, both groups that ISIS would like to remove from the area they consider a part of their caliphate. Christians and Yazidis have inhabited areas of Iraq for thousands of years. However, ISIS’s treatment of religious minorities—including killings by burning and beheading, torture, and enslavement—has instilled fear and may have permanently emptied many areas of such minorities.

Other World Book article:

• Iraq (2014-a Back in time article)