Pope Francis visited Mosul and prayed for the victims of the war in the Iraqi city left in ruins by the Islamic State

The Pope Francis arrived in Mosul this Sunday, large city in northern Iraq, where the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) sowed terror and death between 2014 and 2017.

Pope Francis prayed on Sunday for the “victims of the war” outside a century-old church in the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq, badly damaged by the Islamic State group and assured that the exodus of Christians from the East is “an incalculable damage, not only for the people and communities affected, but for the very society they leave behind ”.

Five Iraqi helicopters escorted the first Supreme Pontiff in history to visit Iraq. He was then transferred in an armored car to the ruins of a thousand-year-old church in central Mosul., where he prayed for “the victims of war”.

It’s him third and last day of the pope’s historic visit to Iraq. The 84-year-old Argentine-Argentine Sovereign Pontiff arrived at the airport in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where he was greeted by dignitaries and children dressed in traditional Kurdish robes.

Then he traveled to Mosul, a very symbolic visit, and also the most dangerous stage of your trip. Sunday is the day when bodyguards and security forces must be the most vigilant.

The few kilometers traveled by the Pope by road were in armored vehicles. Most of the 1,445 km of the route undertaken on Friday were traveled by plane or helicopter to fly over areas and avoid those where clandestine jihadist cells are still hiding.

Seven years ago, as the jihadists were gaining ground, the Pope had already said he was ready to go there to comfort the displaced and other victims of the war.

On Sunday recited in Mosul a “prayer for the victims of the war”, these thousands of Yazidis, Christians and Muslims killed by the jihadists or killed in combat to expel them from Iraq. The Sovereign Pontiff, opposed to “weapons”, to “terrorism which abuses religion” and to “intolerance”, will see the ruins left by the jihadists, defeated in 2017.

“We all hope that this visit bodes well for the Iraqi people. We hope this will bring better days “, declared at AFP enthused Adnan Yusef, a Christian from northern Iraq.

“This important visit will lift our spirits after years of hardship, trouble and war”, Father George Jahula abounds in a country where the Christian community decreases every year with the exiles.

In this country of 40 million people, almost all Muslims, there are 400,000 Christians, a number much lower than the 1.5 million before the American invasion in 2003.

In Mosul, whose old city has been reduced to a heap of rubble, the Pope will meet all the Christian communities, after having transferred their problems to the authorities in Baghdad.

The imposing security device deployed for the Pope’s visit will be particularly alert during the day.

– Thousands of faithful –

The few kilometers traveled by the Pope by road were in armored vehicles. Most of the 1,445 km of the route undertaken on Friday were traveled by plane or helicopter to fly over areas and avoid those where clandestine jihadist cells are still hiding.

And all this in the middle of a total confinement decreed until Monday (the day of his departure) to deal with covid-19 infections which are reaching records in the country.

After Mosul, the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics arrived in the iconic city of Qaraqosh, further east, where the church of Al Tahira, burnt down by the jihadists, has been completely restored.

The people of Qaraqosh spared no effort until the last minute, between rehearsals for the choirs, cleaning of marble slabs in churches and decorations placed in the streets in honor of the Argentine Pope.

There, in the Nineveh Plain, most Iraqi Christians lived, but many fled their villages in 2014 and took refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. Since then, only a few tens of thousands of them have returned.

The remarks made on Saturday by Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a great Shiite figure who told the Pope that he is working for Christians in Iraq to live in “peace”, “security” and with “all their constitutional rights”, could encourage them.

The main act of Sunday is the mass that the Pope will officiate in the afternoon in a stadium in Erbil in front of thousands of faithful.

The Pope will be able to take the opportunity to speak with some of the faithful and probably greet them from the popemobile, which he has not used for the moment.

(With information from AFP)

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