The Pope returned to Rome from Baghdad on Monday after a four-day trip that took in centres from Najaf in the south, where on Saturday he held a historic face-to-face meeting with powerful Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to Nineveh in the north, where he met Christian victims of the Islamic State (IS) terror group and heard their testimonies.
“Iraq will always remain with me, in my heart,” the Pope said as he concluded his final public event on Sunday, a Mass attended by 10,000 people in Erbil’s Franso Hariri Stadium.
He was met at Baghdad’s air- port on Friday by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Iraqis in national dress sang songs of welcome. After being greeted by President Barham Salih, Francis said that he was very pleased to visit the “cradle of civilisation”. “May the clash of arms be silenced,” he said.
He later met Christians at Baghdad’s Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation, which was targeted in a 2010 attack by jihadists that left 52 Christians and police dead. “I thank His Beatitude Patriarch Ignace Youssif Younan and His Beatitude Cardinal Louis Sako for their words of welcome,” Francis said in his address.
“We are gathered in this Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, hallowed by the blood of our brothers and sisters who here paid the ultimate price of their fidelity to the Lord and his Church. May the memory of their sacrifice inspire us to renew our own trust in the power of the Cross and its saving message of forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth. For Christians are called to bear witness to the love of Christ in every time and place. This is the Gospel that must be proclaimed and embodied in this beloved country as well.”
After his meeting with the Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani in Najaf on Saturday, Pope Francis flew to Nasiriya for an interfaith meeting at the Plain of Ur.
A tent-like structure, with white drapes to protect participants from the sun, was set up near the well-preserved remains of the 4,000-year-old Sumerian temple, the Great Ziggurat of Ur.
Along with Muslims, Jews, representatives of Iraq’s Christian Churches and members of Iraqi religious minorities, including the Yazidis and Sabaeans, he prayed for peace, reconciliation and the strength to rebuild the ravaged nation. “As children of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims, together with other believers and all persons of goodwill, we thank you for having given us Abraham, a distinguished son of this noble and beloved country, to be our common father in faith,” the religious leaders prayed.
On his return to Baghdad in the afternoon, the Pope celebrated Mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of St Joseph.
On Sunday morning, Francis flew to Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, then by helicopter to Iraq’s second city of Mosul, held by IS terrorists from 2014 to 2017, and scene of mass executions of around 2,000 people. After praying among the city’s ruined churches in Church Square for the victims of the occupation, Francis said the exodus of Christians from Iraq and the broader Middle East had done “incalculable harm not just to the individuals and communities concerned but also to the society they leave behind”.
Referring to the historic region of Mesopotamia, which covered much of modern Iraq including Mosul, Pope Francis said: “How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow, with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people – Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and others – forcibly displaced or killed.
“Today, however, we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, peace more powerful than war.”
Francis then travelled by helicopter to the largely Christian town of Qaraqosh, where the Church of the Immaculate Conception was gutted by IS but renovated ahead of his visit. The priest, Fr Ammar Yako, said that Francis was the first to lead prayers in the newly finished church.
The plane with the Vatican delegation and more than 70 journalists landed in Rome on Monday afternoon, International Women’s Day. Speaking to the journalists during the flight, Francis said he could not believe it when he was shown lists of women offered for sale, just as IS had done with Yazidis. Human trafficking was taking place everywhere and also in the centre of Europe, he said.
He said the ruins of houses of worship in Mosul had left a par- ticularly deep impression on him, and the meeting with the 90-year-old Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, had “done him good in his soul”.
Loading ...
