ROME (AP) – Pope Francis will meet Iraq’s top Shiite Muslim cleric, Ali al-Sistani, during a trip next month that will also include a pilgrimage to former Christian communities that have been emptied and devastated in battles with the Estado group Islamic.
The Vatican released on Monday the itinerary of Francisco’s visit to Iraq from March 5 to 8, his first trip abroad since he was grounded for 16 months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 84-year-old Pontiff, who was vaccinated against COVID-19, apparently intends to continue the trip, despite the pandemic and persistent security concerns.
Francisco’s main reason for making his first papal trip to Iraq is to encourage the country’s Christians, who faced decades of discrimination by Iraqi Muslims before being persecuted by the Islamic State group from 2014. Francisco intended to visit Iraq on that year, as well as São João Paulo II in 2000, but both had to cancel their trips due to security concerns.
On his first day in Baghdad, Francisco will meet Catholic priests and nuns at the Church of Our Lady of Salvation, the site of a 2010 massacre that killed 58 people and was claimed by the Al Qaeda group in Iraq, which later split into IS.
The next day, Francis travels to Najaf, home of al-Sistani, one of the world’s leading Shiite leaders. He will also host an interfaith meeting that day in the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, the prophet who is common to Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Francis spent years trying to improve Christian relations with Muslims, and his meeting with al-Sistani will mark one of his most important meetings with a Shiite leader. Francisco has already established close ties with the prominent Sunni leader, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the great imam of Al-Azhar, the residence of Sunni learning in Cairo.
Francisco’s last full day in Iraq will take him to the northern Kurdish region, from where he will visit Mosul and Qaraqosh on the plains of Nineveh, the largest Christian city in Iraq where the population fled when IS arrived in 2014.
The slow return of displaced Christians to northern Iraq since the territory was freed from Islamic State in 2017 remains a controversial issue. Few Christian families have returned, but the Vatican has encouraged those who have fled to return and ensure a continued Christian presence in the area dating from the time of Christ.
Many Christian families remain displaced in the Kurdish region, saying their homes in Mosul are still destroyed and habitable. Others fear the presence of militias stationed in and around the Ninevah Plains. Qaraqosh, a village with a Christian majority, has come to symbolize the situation of Christians in Iraq since the liberation battles were fought and won.
The IS maintains a presence throughout northern Iraq and is capable of carrying out operations using active sleeping cells aimed at Iraqi security forces. Attacks in Nineveh have eased in the past year, but the group is active in neighboring provinces of Kirkuk and Diyala.
Francisco will also say a prayer “for the victims of war” in a church square in Mosul. Many of Mosul’s churches were destroyed by ISIS fighters and air strikes during the war. Rebuilding them took years.
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Samya Kullab contributed from Baghdad.