Pope Francis returns to Rome after historic visit to Iraq

Pope Francis left Iraq on Monday morning after the first visit in the history of a great pontiff to a country plunged into violence for years., a trip during which he defended the cause of the Iraqi Christian community.

The 84-year-old pope’s visit to Iraq last Friday went off without incident.

During your stay, François visited the capital Baghdad, as well as Mosul and Qaraqosh, the latter two in the north of the country which suffered terror from the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS).

In the holy city of Najaf (south), the Pope met Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a religious reference for most of the world’s Shia Muslims.

“Iraq will always stay with me, in my heart», François declared Sunday evening, after a mass in front of thousands of faithful in a stadium of Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Pope Francis was eager to meet the Christians of Iraq (1% of the population today, compared to 6% 20 years ago) and he devoted his first trip abroad in 15 months to this predominantly Muslim country.

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, with the exception of Sunday in Erbil, the Pope has not been able to muster the crowds as he does on each of his trips abroad.

However, traveled 1,445 km across Iraq, mostly by plane or helicopter, over areas where clandestine jihadist cells still exist, following the defeat of the Islamic State in late 2017.

In Iraq, the Pope denounced “terrorism which abuses religion”, called for “peace” and “unity” in the Middle East and lamented the departure of Christians from the region as “incalculable damage “.

He also participated in an ecumenical prayer with the different religions present in Iraq for millennia in Ur, birthplace according to the Bible of Patriarch Abraham, father of monotheism.

Public health experts have expressed concern ahead of the trip that the crowds produced during the tour could become sources of coronavirus infection in a country where infections are worsening and few people are vaccinated. The Pope and his entourage have been vaccinated, but most Iraqis have not.

Iraq is witnessing a new wave of coronavirus cases fueled by a more contagious strain that was first identified in the United States. Iraqi authorities recorded 4,068 new cases on March 6, according to the health ministry, well above rates at the start of the year.. A total of 13,500 people have died and 720,000 cases have been confirmed.

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