WASHINGTON — The U.S. Catholic bishops have urged the U.S. government to assist Iraqi Christian victims of persecution from militants of the Islamic State, while France has offered asylum to Iraqi Christians who have fled Mosul.

“The Islamic State has taken control of large swaths of territory in northern Iraq, leaving a trail of destruction, burning and looting ancient churches and mosques, homes and businesses,” Bishop Richard Pates, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) International Justice and Peace Committee, said July 25.

In a letter to Susan Rice, U.S. national security adviser, Bishop Pates stated, “Thousands have fled with little more than the clothes on their backs, often being robbed of their few personal possessions as they ran.” [Read the Register’s report "Iraq’s Christians: Robbed, Abandoned and Desperate to Survive."]

Bishop Pates, who heads the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, cited a July 22 statement from the bishops of the Chaldean Catholic, Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Armenian Churches.

The Iraqi bishops appealed to the Iraqi central government to protect Christians’ rights and the rights of other minorities targeted for violence and displacement by IS militants. They also urged financial assistance and social services for the displaced.

Bishop Pates stressed the need to provide direct humanitarian aid for minority communities through trusted non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in order to prevent its diversion to other purposes.

He urged the U.S. government to “do all it can to provide this critical assistance to those in desperate straits and to work with other governments in an effort to stop the violence.”

Bishop Pates cited Pope Francis’ words, “Violence is defeated with peace.”

Iraq’s Christians have been hit particularly hard by the rise of the Islamic State, a jihadist group formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or ISIL).

The U.N. believes only 20 Christian families remain in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an ancient center of Christianity, following the city’s conquest by IS forces, reports the BBC.

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Babylon, who is based in Baghdad, estimated that there were about 35,000 Christians in Mosul before the city’s fall, down from 60,000 before the 2003 U.S. invasion.

The French government has offered asylum to the Iraqi Christians who have fled Mosul.

“We are ready, if they so desire, to help facilitate asylum on our territory,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, members of the ruling Socialist government, said in a joint statement.

The BBC also reported that a French opposition party, the National Front, on July 26 held a rally in Paris to show their support for Iraqi Christians.