Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate has denied claims said to have been circulated online that its Patriarch Louis Sako "approved" mass emigrations of Christians to safe havens in Canada and Germany.

A response seen by the Fides news service said that the claims are "completely unfounded". According to Fides, it says that "the Patriarchate endorses the position already expressed on other occasions: whoever decides to leave the Country torn by sectarian conflicts and destabilised by the creation of the Islamic Caliphate, does it in full freedom. The Patriarchate does not bind anyone to the moral obligation to stay, nor does it encourage anyone to go away. The path of emigration always represents a personal decision, which cannot be justified with references to non-existent approvals by the ecclesiastical authority."

The Patriarchate's sensivity about suggestions that the Patriarch might be encouraging emigration are accounted for by his uncompromising opposition to attempts by Westerners to increase the number of Christians allowed to flee the country, which he regards as misguided. In an interview in September last year in Rome, he said the priority was "to encourage people to persevere and remain steadfast in their faith, without leaving their land. Staying put ... Those who leave must be aware that the West is not a promised land, let alone Paradise."

He criticised people who encouraged Iraqis to leave, "As if the migration of thousands of Iraqi Christians to the US was something to ask God's blessing for. That's a strange thing to do and only confuses people's faith."

He urged Iraq Christians to "Ask themselves what the Lord is asking from them in that moment and maybe realise that we have a future here in this devastated and blessed land of ours. And that the whole country represents our mission."

In October last year Patriarch Louis suspended a group of monks and priests who fled Iraq for the US without consulting their superiors, saying a priest's primary duty is to serve his flock wherever he is asked.

He referred to priests who had stayed with their people despite the dangers, saying: "I remind you, brothers, of Jesus' saying, 'He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.'"