Pope Francis is moving forward with his first papal trip to Iraq, despite the increase in coronavirus infections, in the hope of encouraging the diminishing number of Christians who were violently persecuted during the Islamic State insurgency as they sought to strengthen ties with the world Shiite Muslim.
Security is a concern for the March 5-8 visit, given the continued presence of rogue Shi’ite militias and new rocket attacks. Francis, who loves to dive into the crowd and zigzag in his popemobile, must travel in an armored car with a considerable security detachment. The Vatican hopes that the measures will have the double effect of protecting the pope and, at the same time, discouraging contagious crowds.
Francis’ visit is the culmination of two decades of efforts to bring a pope to the birthplace of Abraham, the central prophet for the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions, after St. John Paul II was prevented from going in 1999.
“We cannot disappoint these people a second time,” said Francisco on Wednesday, asking for prayers for the trip.
Father Nazeer Dako arranges for a Vatican flag to welcome Pope Francis to the Chaldean Church of St. Joseph, ahead of the Pope’s visit in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday. (AP)
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The trip will give Francisco – and the world – a close-up view of the devastation caused by the ISIS reign of 2014-2017, which destroyed hundreds of Christian-owned houses and churches in the north, and sent tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians and others fleeing religious minorities.
The trip will include a private meeting with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a revered figure in Iraq and beyond.
WHAT IS THE SITUATION OF VIRUSES IN IRAQ?
Iraq is witnessing a resurgence of infections, with new cases daily peaking at its first wave.
For months, Francis avoided even small socially distant public hearings in the Vatican, raising questions about why he would expose Iraqis to the risk of possible infection. Francisco, the Vatican delegation and the traveling media were vaccinated, but few ordinary Iraqis were vaccinated.
The Vatican defended the visit, insisting that it was planned to limit the crowds and that health measures will be applied. But even so, 10,000 tickets were prepared for the pope’s final event, an open-air mass at a stadium in Irbil.
In this November 2016 photo, Iraqi Christians pray at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, damaged by Islamic State fighters during the occupation of Qaraqosh, east of Mosul, Iraq. (AP)
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Spokesman Matteo Bruni said the important thing is for Iraqis to be able to watch Francisco on TV and “know that the pope is there for them, bringing a message that it is possible to have hope even in the most difficult situations”.
He acknowledged that there could be consequences for the visit, but said the Vatican measured the risks against the need for Iraqis to feel the pope’s “act of love”.
HOW WILL CHRISTIANS REACT TO THE POPE’S INTERFAITH MESSAGE?
Before ISIS took over much of northern Iraq, Reverend Karam Shamasha ministered to 1,450 families in his hometown of Telskuf, 20 miles north of Mosul. Today, the families of his Chaldean Catholic parish number 500, evidence of the massive exodus of Christians who fled the extremists and never returned.
Shamasha says that Francis will be welcomed by those left behind, although his message of interfaith harmony is sometimes difficult for Iraqi Christians to hear. They faced decades of discrimination and envy by the Muslim majority long before ISIS.
“The first people who came to steal our homes were our neighbors (Muslims),” Shamasha told reporters before the trip. Even before ISIS, when a Christian family built a new home, Muslim neighbors would sometimes say “‘Good, good, because you are building a home for us’ because they know or believe that in the end, Christians will disappear from this land and the houses will be theirs, “he said.
The Pope’s visit to Iraq will include a private meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, shown here. (AP / Office of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani)
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Francis goes to Iraq precisely to encourage these Christians to persevere and remain, and to emphasize that they have an important role to play in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraqi Christians are believed to total about 1.4 million in 2003. Today, there are about 250,000 left.
Arriving in Baghdad, Francisco will meet priests, seminarians and nuns in the same cathedral where Islamic militants massacred 58 people in 2010 in what was the deadliest attack on Christians since the United States-led invasion in 2003.
On Francis’ last full day in Iraq, he will pray in a Mosul square surrounded by four destroyed churches and visit another church in the Christian city of Qaraqosh that has been rebuilt as a sign of hope for the future of Christianity there.
WHY WILL FRANCIS MEET GRAND AYATOLLAH?
One of the highlights of the trip is Francisco’s meeting with al-Sistani, the great ayatollah whose 2014 fatwah summoning healthy men to fight ISIS increased the ranks of the Shiite militias who helped defeat the group.
Francisco spent years trying to improve relations with Muslims. He signed a historical document on human fraternity in 2019 with a prominent Sunni leader, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the great imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo.
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There are no plans to add al-Sistani’s 91-year-old signature to the document. But the fact that the meeting is taking place is extremely significant, said Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic studies and theology at the University of Notre Dame.
“It is difficult not to see this as a consequence of his relationship with Ahmed el-Tayeb,” said Reynolds, noting al-Sistani’s place as a revered figure of religious, political and intellectual influence in Iraq and beyond.
“I think there would be a lot for them to talk about,” he said.
WHAT ARE THE SECURITY CONCERNS?
Security concerns were a problem long before two suicide bombings alleged by ISIS hit a Baghdad market on January 21, killing at least 32 people.
They only increased after a series of recent rocket attacks, including at least 10 on Wednesday, again targeted the American presence in the country, attacks that the United States attributed to Shi’ite militias.
These same groups, strengthened after the al-Sistani fatwa, are accused of terrorizing Christians and preventing them from returning home. The Iraqi government and religious authorities are concerned that these militias may carry out rocket attacks in Baghdad or elsewhere to show their dissatisfaction with Al-Sistani’s meeting with Francisco.
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Asked whether this 33rd foreign visit was Francisco’s most risky, Bruni responded diplomatically.
“I would not enter a more risky travel competition, but I would say that this is certainly one of the most interesting.”