Iraq awaits Francis: “It is a journey that has its risks and that the Pope directs them”, declared the cardinal Leonardo Sandri

ROMA.- In the midst of the pandemic and despite the latest acts of violence, Pope Francis to undertake historic trip to Iraq from March 5 to 8. Thus, he will become the first Pontiff to set foot in this predominantly Muslim country, punished by decades of war and fundamentalist violence, by a journey not without risks, as Argentinian cardinal Leonardo Sandri admits, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and vice-dean of the College of Cardinals, who will be part of the delegation.

“I think it is a journey that has its risks and that the Pope is leading them, but that he is aware that he is a pastor, that he is a father, that he is someone who will visit his children even if there are difficulties “, said Sandri, a very experienced diplomat, in an interview with La Nación in his Vatican office. The Pope will arrive in a country plunged in a terrible economic crisis and politically unstable, where the fundamentalist terrorist group Islamic State (IS) has raised its head again thanks to the pandemic, as evidenced by the January 21 attack in Baghdad, which left 35 dead. You will visit the capital, Ur of the Chaldeans, near Nassirya, land of Abraham, the father of the three great monotheistic religions and also Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Mosul, the city conquered by the Islamic State and then liberated and the plain of Nineveh, linked to the origins of Christianity and where the majority of Iraqi Christians live.

“I believe that in terms of security, the Iraqi government will do everything to ensure that the Pope’s trip goes smoothly. The Pope is more afraid of the pandemic, ”said Sandri, who held the strategic position of“ deputy ”to the Secretary of State, the third most important after the Pope, during the pontificate of John Paul II.

The truth is that out of nearly half a million Christians estimated to be in Iraq, only a handful will be able to visit Pope Francis: due to a rebound in the coronavirus epidemic, the Iraqi government decided last Sunday to decree a strict quarantine, with a total curfew on weekends, which even includes the closure of mosques and other places of worship. For what Francisco will meet a semi-paralyzed and deserted country, exceptionally open for the long-awaited visit of the illustrious host.

In an hour-long interview, Cardinal Sandri, 77 years old from Buenos Aires but who has lived most of his life in Rome, stressed that it will not only be a journey that “is continuity” of the one that Saint John Paul II dreamed of for the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 In Saddam Hussein’s time, it could not have been for political reasons. It is also a journey of “consolation” towards a land with a “martyr vocation”, marked by fire by suffering, terrorism, violence, bombings and persecutions. Tribulations suffered above all by the Christian minority, decimated and protagonist of a real exodus, but also by the Muslim majority.

“The majority of Christians, the majority of Chaldean Catholics, are 500,000, but it is a fluid figure, false, because there are no statistics. But it is obvious that there has been a remarkable exodus because they have suffered war, terrorism, insecurity, persecution. And so the Pope wanted to visit our Catholic brothers to bring him this consolation, say “here we are”, ”he stressed. “And a very important thing is that the Pope will have to say thank you to these Iraqi bishops for the example they set because they have been faithful to their ministry as pastor and have not left the flock. They did not go, they did not leave their sheep there, but they resisted as best they could, for the circumstances are what they are, but they stayed. It is a gesture which is an example for the whole Church. It is a sign that the Pope is talking about the martyrdom of Christians in the present day, which at one point has come to say that it is worse than the persecutions of the time of early Christianity, ”he said. he added.

Sandri traveled to Iraq in 2012 to help on behalf of the Pope in the rededication of the Syrian Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad, rebuilt after an atrocious attack in October 2010 in which more than 50 people died: priests, lay people, children, who are being declared martyrs. This time, he felt both the prevailing insecurity and the totally different context from that of the West. “I had to go from Baghdad to Kirkuk by plane and the flight was suspended, so I went in a van, of course surrounded by the army, with shrapnel and everything, because there was a big fear of attacks. When I arrived in Kirkuk and met the Bishop, who is the current Patriarch of Baghdad, Cardinal Louis Sako, the first thing he did was take me to the city mosque. , where I had a meeting with the Sunni and Shiite imams, which they made welcome speeches and gave me a Koran, ”he said. “And from there, we went to celebrate mass in the Catholic cathedral. But first, the mosque. Well, for us it’s another world, accustomed as we are to the freedom to walk, to go, to come, there is a whole world of security. In Kirkuk, while we were celebrating Mass with the Patriarch, there was a terrible explosion in the distance: it was an attack with 40 dead, but about twenty kilometers away, ”he recalls.

Sandri, who also traveled in 2015, when he visited Christian refugees expelled by ISIS from northern Iraq, underlined the dimension of interfaith dialogue of the Pope’s trip, which will meet in Najaf the highest Iraqi Shiite religious authority Ayatollah Ali al Sistani. .

“The Pope not only carries the cry for peace of John Paul II, he takes up his last encyclical Fratelli Tutti, on fraternity and the Abu Dhabi declaration that he signed with the grand imam of Al Azhar, Ahmed al Tayeb, the highest Sunni authority. In other words, it carries a proclamation of peace, but not only a concrete roadmap for the future of interreligious relations and for the future of the world. In this direction, Pope Francis’ trip has constitutional value for the future world, a project, a message to remember to get out of this disarray in the current world, with so many inequalities, injustices, poverty and discrimination, ”he stressed. And he stressed, on the other hand, the value of this trip also for the rest of the Middle East. “This has enormous importance because the Middle East is dominated by the presence of Islam in its various forms and it means respect on the part of the Pope for Islam, in a country where Muslims have also been victimized. . Because it is not only the Catholic Church: martyrdom has also been that of so many Muslims. When there is an attack in Baghdad, the majority are them, ”he stressed.

-Why has the Iraqi government insisted so much on this visit, which will take place in a context of pandemic and great instability?

-Irak must overcome a stage where it is considered a state of death for all that there may have been wars, persecutions, terrorism. And a visit like that of the Pope carries the connotation of saying “we are no longer that”, whether the country leaves or has left. It’s like a kind of stamp that says “go”. Now, let’s hope that during the whole visit this is true, that the Pope is respected and that there is no problem from a security point of view.

– What will be for you the indicators of the success of this trip?

– For me it will not be the masses in jubilation. I remember John Paul II’s trip to Greece: there was no one in the street, it was a desert. Has it failed? It was successful in the long run, not immediately and that is what we need to see. The fact that the Pope leans towards these people in the name of the whole Church, carrying on his shoulders suffering humanity, as Vicar of Christ, is a “success” or a triumph which is not measured by manifestations. . But it is a journey that will leave the possibility of opening even more doors for the fulfillment of God’s plan, which wants us all to be brothers and sisters, projecting a new humanity.

-The Pope will make a very risky trip, which will be “the” trip of his pontificate … And the trip to his homeland for when?

-It reminds me a lot of the parable of the prodigal son: the mad father when he sees him coming back to the son who left, who abandoned him and went to eat acorns. And the other son reproaches him and the father tells him “I am always with you”. I think that is the answer the Pope gives us in case he goes to Argentina or not. He is still with us.

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