Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu of Tehran and Isfahan, Iran has surfaced in Rome after days of uncertainty about his whereabouts following the start of a U.S. and Israel-Iran war. In a brief statement sent to the Belgian Catholic news site, Cathobel, Cardinal Mathieu, who is Belgian by birth, said he arrived in Rome on Sunday “not without regret and sorrow for our brothers and sisters in Iran.” His departure from Iran, he said, was “part of the complete evacuation of the Italian Embassy, which serves as the seat of the archdiocese.”
