” “After the Angelus prayer, yesterday morning, Benedict XVI mentioned his meeting of September 30th with Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeians, who told him about the "tragic reality" which is experienced day after day by the population in Iraq, "where Christians and Muslims have lived together for 14 centuries as the children of the same land". After expressing the wish "that thee bonds of brotherhood will not move apart", the Pope invited everyone to pray for "the gift of peace and harmony for that tortured country". Then, the Holy Father recalled that today, October 2nd, is the World Habitat Day, launched by the UN, focusing this year on "Cities, magnets of hope". The management of the quick urbanisation process, according to the Pope, "is one of the most serious issues which the XXI-century man is called to face". Hence his "encouragement to those who, locally and internationally, work so that people living in degraded suburbs may be given respectable living standards, fulfil their primary needs and achieve their ambitions, especially in their families and in peaceful social cohabitation".” “
