Because of the tense security situation, the Catholics do not hold services in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Christmas Eve. The midnight masses on December 24 in all Baghdad churches were canceled, said the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Raphael Sako. However, the fair would take place on Christmas day itself, he added.
At the service on December 25, prayers would be "for a solution to the crisis" and "for their victims, both on the part of the demonstrators and on the part of the security forces," said Sako.
Baghdad and southern Iraq have been shaken by massive protests against the government since early October. Around 460 people have been killed and around 25,000 others injured, most of them demonstrators. At least eight demonstrators were killed in the south of the country at the end of November - they were apparently shot by security forces who cleared two occupied bridges in the city of Nasirija. Around 50 other demonstrators were injured.
Half a million Christians in Iraq
Sako had already announced in early December that the church would refrain from public Christmas celebrations out of respect for the victims. "There will be no decorated Christmas trees in the churches or streets, no celebrations and no reception in the patriarchy," he said.
Persistent protests in Iraq
Around half a million Christians live in Iraq. Before the war in Iraq began in 2003, there were three times as many. Most of the remaining Christians live in the capital Baghdad and in the northern region of Nineve.
Successor to Prime Minister wanted
Under pressure from the protests, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced his resignation in November. Parliament accepted his request in early December. Since then, the deeply disputed parties in parliament have struggled to succeed him.
In the face of increasing violence, the country's top Shia cleric has called for swift elections. "The quickest and most peaceful way to get out of the current crisis and avoid uncertainty, chaos or internal struggles (...) is to hold early elections," said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the pilgrimage city of Kerbela.
With the message, which was read out by his representative as usual, the influential priest increased the pressure on the country's political elites once again. The 89-year-old clergyman, who has an enormous reputation in Iraq, had spoken several times before in the current crisis and criticized the government.
