'Although Iraq has a democratic government, Iraqi Christians were safer and had more protection under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein', said French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran**, appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in 2007.

'Power is in the hands of the strongest -- the Shiites -- and the country is sinking into a sectarian civil war (between Sunni and Shiite Muslims) in which not even Christians are spared,' he said and Christians, 'paradoxically, were more protected under the dictatorship'

**Cardinal Tauran is a longtime veteran of the Vatican's diplomatic service and a specialist in international affairs.
He was Pope John Paul II's "foreign minister," the official who dealt with all aspects of the Vatican's foreign policy from 1990 to 2003.

From the Catholic News Service