Pope Francis in Iraq: Pope Francis begins historic visit to Iraq as 'pilgrim of peace'

Pope Francis Arrival in Iraq

 

Francisco undertakes his visit in Iraq amid high security measures and in the midst of a pandemic, in order to comfort one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.

The Supreme Pontiff's plane took off at dawn on Friday, March 5, 2021, from Fiumicino, Rome's main airport. The 84-year-old Francis assured that he will make this first visit of a Pope to Iraq as a "pilgrim of peace." He also said that he will reach out to Shia Muslims in a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest religious authority of this branch of Islam.

During this three-day visit to several cities, the Pope will find few people to receive him, due to a total confinement decreed in the country, where the number of cases this week has broken a record since the start of the pandemic, with more than 5,000 infected daily.
Journey marked by the pandemic

The head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, who has said he feels "caged" in recent months in a slow-motion Vatican by the pandemic, will begin an armored vehicle without people, "virtual" for the Iraqis who will follow him by television, and mainly by air. The helicopter or the papal plane will sometimes fly over areas where jihadists from the Islamic State group are still hiding.

In the stages of the trip, only a few hundred people will congregate, with the exception of Sunday mass at the Erbil stadium, in Kurdistan, in which several thousand faithful who have reserved their places in advance will participate. The papal program is ambitious and includes Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh. It will travel 1,445 km in a country that only two days ago was hit by rocket fire, the latest episode of the Iranian-American tensions that are still latent in Iraq.

This first trip abroad in fifteen months will allow the Pope to meet a small community of faithful in the "peripheries" of the planet, which is what he likes the most. As he always does, Francis will begin with a speech to the Iraqi leaders. Beyond the security or economic difficulties suffered by the 40 million Iraqis, they will no doubt speak of the additional trauma of Christians.