As far as I know the Iraq post office has never released any Christmas stamps since its existence. I took the opportunity of this occasion to commemorate a very significant award on the 25th of November 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI ordained Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly as the head of the Chaldean Church in Iraq and the world and reiterated his support for the Iraqi people.
Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly was one of 23 new cardinals elevated by the pontiff in a ceremony held at St. Peter’s Church and attended by delegates from a wide range of countries.
Emmanuel III was born in 1927 in a tiny village near Mosul in Northern Iraq, where Christians have been practicing their religion for around 2,000 years and some still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
The number of Iraq’s Christian Community was a million and a half before the regime change in April 2003, but has decreased in the recent years because of the deteriorating security condition in the country and they now number around 750,000.
The top religious title granted by the Vatican to Patriarch Emmanuel is the first awarded to an Iraqi Christian in Iraq’s contemporary history.