Pope Francis: Mass in Baghdad with surprise | To receive …

Pope Francis celebrated the first mass of a pontiff under the Chaldean rite at St. Joseph’s Church in Baghdad. On the second day of his three-day tour of Iraq, the Pope lamented in his homily that the world puts the rich, the powerful and the famous first. “Ok who has, who can and who matters”, criticized the Pope.

The historic tour is celebrated by the President of Iraq, Barham Salih |, of Muslim religion, with whom he met on his first day in the country. Salih attended the pope’s mass with surprise as a thank you for the bonds the pontiff forged with the Chaldean community, the predominant branch of Catholicism in Iraq.

“Often those who have more means can acquire more knowledge and have more opportunities, while those who have less are relegated (..) It is an unacceptable inequality, which has now widened” , During a mass marked strict security measures for the pandemic and with a number of participants who did not reach 200 people.

Francis was also accompanied by Iraqi Catholic Cardinal Luis Rafael I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans and head of the Chaldean Catholic Church. During the rite, Francis reaffirmed his closeness to persecuted Christians in Iraq. “So many brothers and sisters here have also suffered prejudice and crime, abuse and persecution for the name of Jesus,” he said from the church of San José in the capital. According to Vatican data, there is a persecution of Christians which would explain why the number of worshipers has increased from 1.2 million to around 300 thousand in the Asian country.

Before Mass, the Pope had met Ayatollah Al Sistani in Najaf, about 160 km south of Baghdad. Grand Ayatollah of Iraq since 1993, Al Sistani is considered the greatest spiritual leader of Shia Islam in Iraq and the most influential man in that country today. Then the pope went to Nasiriya where an interfaith meeting took place on the plain of Ur, where tradition says that Patriarch Abraham was born, revered by the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

In the afternoon, he returned to the capital to preside over mass at St. Joseph’s Chaldean Cathedral in the Iraqi capital. The pope chose the Chaldean rite to pay homage to the Eastern Christian Churches. He spoke in Italian and the faithful responded in Arabic.