Iraq's Christians received a message of hope this week as a new Coptic Orthodox cathedral opened in Baghdad, with Iraqi officials urging Christians who fled the country to come home.

The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, St. Paul the Anchorite and St. Anthony the Great, in Baghdad's New Baghdad district, is the first church of the ancient Egyptian Coptic tradition to open in Iraq, according to the Christian Post. The opening drew ministers, senior clergy, and political leaders, and the ceremony was covered by Iraq's state news agency.

Karim Hammadi, who runs the Iraqi Media Network, the country's public broadcaster, told the Iraqi News Agency at the ceremony that the new cathedral is a sign for Iraqi Christians living abroad to return. “Iraq is safe and needs them,” he said. He described the cathedral as a plain sign that Iraqis of different faiths live side by side, and said the country's civilization makes room for all of them.

Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi spoke at the event as well. He called Iraq's diversity a gift that protects its people from intolerance and division, and said his government had pledged from its first day in office to protect the unity and rights of all Iraqis, whatever their background. He also announced that under the Watan Initiative, named for the Arabic word for homeland, the government plans to hand out one million residential plots so that every Iraqi family without a home benefits, with foundation stones to be laid in every governorate before the end of the year.

The hope in Baghdad stands against a hard recent history. More than a decade ago, Islamist militants targeted Christians and their churches. In 2010, a siege by the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate that later became the Islamic State (ISIS), at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad killed more than 50 people. In 2014, ISIS drove Christians from their land and homes in Mosul and other cities it seized. Many of those families have never returned, and Iraq's Christian community is far smaller today than it was before the violence.

Not everyone in Iraq's Christian leadership shares the government's confidence. Kaldo Oghanna, a Chaldean Catholic member of parliament who holds one of the five seats reserved for Christians under Iraq's quota system, has himself called for diaspora Christians to return. But in September he told The Catholic Register that “Iraq's government is weak and has inadequate control of Iran-backed militias that cause a lot of trouble,” and called for stopping “the outflow before inviting diaspora Christians to return.” His caution is a reminder that a new building, however welcome, is not the same as lasting safety.

For the Christians of Iraq, the question now is whether the welcome will be matched by protection, homes, and livelihoods. A cathedral is a place to worship, but families deciding whether to come home will be watching what happens next — whether the government can keep its promises, whether militias are brought under control, and whether their neighbors truly make room for them. The Church around the world can pray for both: for the leaders who spoke words of welcome, and for the families weighing whether to trust them.