Pope begins most dangerous journey of his pontificate in Iraq

Pope Francis begins the most dangerous and uncertain journey of his eight-year pontificate on Friday, challenging ISIS terrorists and the new wave of coronavirus that is punishing Iraq, which will infect some of those who want to see him and receive his blessing.

The 33rd. The journey of his pontificate of almost eight years is the most difficult because it involves a challenge for terrorists of the Islamic State, defeated militarily but still in operation. François will travel to Iraq with a renewed message of peace between Friday 5th and Monday 8th. He has never taken so many risks.

The apostolic tour is also the most uncertain because the Pope, already immunized with two vaccines, will visit six cities by crisscrossing ancient Mesopotamia from north to south. The thousands of people who want to see and welcome him will inevitably suffer from infections as the second wave of the virus is multiplying and has already caused 700,000 infected people and 17,300 deaths.

Terrorist violence and Plague are two enormous challenges, many more if they are added, but the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholics, Raphael Sako, said that Francis “is very stubborn, he will not cancel the trip and he will bless us ”.

François will travel to Iraq with a renewed message of peace between Friday 5th and Monday 8th. He has never taken so many risks.

The preparations are meticulous. The government made a special request that 84-year-old Jorge Bergoglio could not refuse. He agreed to travel through Iraq on board an armored car for the first time during his apostolic tours. So far, he has always refused.

The trip will cover 1,650 kilometers which largely the Argentine Pope will do by plane. You will move a lot, get very little rest, and strain your right leg with painful sciatica.

Bergoglio also challenges himself on this trip, the first he made after a year in which he had to leave apostolic tours due to the pandemic which even deserted the Vatican itself, due to the anti-Covid-19 security measures.

The first pontiff to set foot in Iraq

The first pontiff to set foot in Iraq, one of the most important cradles of human civilization, where writing was born and Mesopotamian civilization consolidated between the Euphrates and the Tigris, is already almost a champion if he manages to come back alive to the Vatican. without being named responsible for a fatal increase in the epidemic.

For some scientists, the challenge of Covid-19 is “a bad idea” which the crowds will pay let them come around to cheer him on, even if the government tries to contain the danger of an untimely plague epidemic. He wants the presence of the Pope at all costs, which would strengthen the internal balance of power and give it an international sparkle.

The ambassador (nuncio) the pope to Iraq, Slovenian Monsignor Mitja Lekovar, Slovenian, 51, inspected the locations of the Argentine pontiff’s tour and returned to Baghdad in time for get infected for the pandemic. They heal him, well isolated. Doctors say her symptoms are “mild”: many think it is a bad omen.

What is Francisco looking for? Above all, console and encourage what remains of what was one of the largest Catholic communities in the Middle East. They were one and a half million Chaldeans in the days of dictator Saddam Hussein, until he was overthrown in 2003 with the North American invasion that occupied the country and ended up claiming the Saddam Trophy humiliated on the gallows.

What is Francisco looking for? Above all, comfort and encourage what remains of what was once one of the largest Catholic communities in the Middle East.

Thus began the tumultuous birth of DAESH, ISIS, which raged against Christians. It is estimated that out of this million and a half between 200 and 400 thousand remain in Iraq, they could not escape like the others. Francis wants to avoid the exodus, to begin a process of reconciliation which, in his journey, will end in the holy city of Najaf with the meeting with Al-Sistani, the Patriarch of the Shiites.

The Shiites number 200 million out of the 1.3 billion who inhabit the Arab world and periodically wage wars with the Sunni majority. Two years ago, the Pope of Rome visited Abu Dhabi and signed a joint historic document with the most important figure in the Sunni world: Ahmad al Tayed.

If the meeting with Patriarch Al Sistani ends in similar terms, Bergoglio will have reached a great triumph, which consolidates the final phase of his pontificate.

And he consolidates it in front of his internal enemies, who are struggling because of the outrages committed by former President Donald Trump and the arrival of Democratic successor Joe Biden, a Catholic of Irish descent, a personal friend of the pontiff, have helped cool the warlike spirits of the ultraconservatives who sought to threaten a schism and to control the next conclave which will elect Francis’ successor.

The pandemic has helped Bergoglio, immobilized the Church from within.

If things go wrong, the prominence he himself sought on the challenge trip to Iraq will backfire and he will have to face a new domestic storm.

Yes Bergoglio comes back unharmed adventure in Iraq, it will be a good card in its favor in the internal struggle. If in addition he succeeds very well with the Patriarch of the Shiites in Nadjaf, he can seek an agreement from positions of strength with the conservatives of the Church based in the United States, who haunt him for the future.

If things turn out badly, the importance he himself sought of the challenge trip to Iraq, it will turn against you and must face another inner storm.

Wherever you look at it, this is a journey of exceptional significance. From early Friday, he will meet with Catholic clerics in the Syrian Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, which a group of terrorists from DAESH (the name of the Islamic State) attacked ten years ago killing 58 Catholics.

On Saturday, François will arrive in Najaf for his historic meeting with Ayatollah Al-Sistani, the highest authority of the Shiites in Iraq, where they form the majority of the 40 million inhabitants.

This will be the pivotal moment of the tour, as it complements the understanding program with Muslims that began in Cairo and Abu Dhabi, where he signed the landmark dialogue document with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad al Tayeb, the highest point of reference for Sunni Muslims. It is not known whether a similar historical document will be signed during the Al-Sistani meeting.

Another appointment with history will be a visit to the ancient city of Ur, considered the home of Abraham, the common prophet of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Abraham is considerate the father of monotheism.

Near Ur is Nasiriyah, the town where last Friday six protesters died protesting against the government.

Sunday, Francis will visit Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh. Mosul is a martyr city of Christians who suffered reprisals for terrorism by DAESH, forcing the greatest historical escape Chaldean Catholics from Iraq.

In the country, the coronavirus epidemic has imposed itself partial quarantines which include the closure of all religious temples. It is expected that the acts over which the Pope will preside they will not be massiveBut the meeting with the Chaldean Catholics in Erbil can bring together a crowd of ten thousand people, including many Muslims who will be attracted by the character of the Pope.

Monday 8, Bergoglio will return to Rome where the plague also reigns, with Italy in a tragic week which will end with a total of hundred thousand dead in a pandemic year.

Vatican, correspondent

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