Baghdad bishop to speak in Chicago

As leader of Iraq’s tiny Roman Catholic population, overseeing a diocese of about 2,500, Sleiman’s parishes are islands in the predominantly Muslim country.

The few Christians in Iraq — about 3 percent of the population, or 800,000 people — are mostly Eastern Rite Catholics who do not follow the Latin rite of worship.

But when a U.S. religious order hosting a conference in Chicago needed someone to speak about the experience of Christians in the Middle East, they turned to Sleiman, Baghdad’s bishop, who will visit Chicago this month for the Carmelite Institute Conference.