IRBIL, Iraq – Pope Francis arrived in northern Iraq on Sunday, where he planned to pray in the ruins of churches damaged or destroyed by Islamic State extremists and to celebrate an open-air mass on the last day of the first papal visit to the country.
The Vatican hopes that the landmark visit will bring the country’s Christian communities together and encourage them to stay, despite decades of war and instability. Francis also delivered a message of interfaith tolerance and brotherhood to Muslim leaders, including at a historic meeting on Saturday with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Pope Francis, on the right, meets Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq, Saturday, March 6, 2021. (Associated Press)
Francisco went to the northern city of Mosul, which was heavily damaged in the war against ISIS, to pray for the victims of the war in Iraq. In an unimaginable scene just four years ago, he set up a stage in a city square surrounded by the remains of four damaged churches belonging to some of Iraq’s numerous Christian rites and denominations. An elated crowd greeted him.
POPE, MAJOR IRAQ SHIITE CLERIC HISTORICAL, SYMBOLIC MEETING
ISIS invaded Mosul in June 2014 and declared a caliphate that stretched from northern Syria to northern and western Iraq. It was from the Mosul al-Nuri mosque that the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his only public appearance when he gave a sermon on Friday calling on all Muslims to follow him as a “caliph”.
Pope Francis, on the right, is received by Muslim clerics when he arrives at the international airport in Irbil, Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
Mosul had great symbolic importance for the IS and became the bureaucratic and financial backbone of the group. He was finally released in July 2017, after a fierce nine-month battle. Between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed, according to an AP investigation at the time. Al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. attack on Syria in 2019.
Children in their festive robes wave Iraqi flags at the camera when they arrive to join Pope Francis, who will pray for the victims of the war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square in Mosul, Iraq, which was once the de facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
Francisco will later travel by helicopter across the plains of Nineveh to the small Christian community of Qaraqosh, where only a fraction of the families have returned after fleeing the IS attack in 2014. He will hear testimonies from residents and will pray at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, which was set on fire by IS and restored in recent years.
He ends the day with a mass at the stadium in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous region of northern Kurdish, which is expected to attract up to 10,000 people. He arrived in Irbil early Sunday, where he was greeted by children in traditional dress and a dress like a pope.
Iraqi security forces are stationed in Mosul, northern Iraq, once the de facto capital of ISIS, where Pope Francis will pray for the victims of the war in Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, Sunday, March 7, 2021. ( Associated Press)
Iraq declared victory over IS in 2017 and, although the extremist group does not control any more territory, it still carries out sporadic attacks, especially in the north. The country has also seen a series of recent Iranian-backed militia rocket attacks on U.S. targets, violence linked to tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The brutal ISIS group’s three-year rule over much of northern and western Iraq, and the exhaustive campaign against it, left a wide range of destruction. Reconstruction efforts have stopped amid a financial crisis for years, and entire neighborhoods remain in ruins. Many Iraqis had to rebuild their homes at their own expense.
The Christian minority in Iraq has been hit particularly hard. The militants forced them to choose between conversion, death or the payment of a special fee for non-Muslims. Thousands fled, leaving behind houses and churches that were destroyed or confiscated by extremists.
Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani, on the right, greets Pope Francis on his arrival at the international airport in Irbil, Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
The Christian population of Iraq, which dates back to the early days of the faith, had already declined rapidly, from about 1.5 million before the United States-led invasion in 2003 that plunged the country into chaos to just a few hundred thousand today.
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Francisco hopes to transmit a message of hope, highlighted by the historic character of the visit and the fact that it is his first international trip since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Iraqi Kurdish officials welcome Pope Francis to the center when he arrives at the airport in Irbil, Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
Public health experts expressed concern before the trip that large meetings could serve as over-spreading events for the coronavirus in a country suffering from an aggravated outbreak where few have been vaccinated.
The Vatican said it was taking precautions, including holding mass outdoors in a stadium that will be partially filled. But during the visit, the crowds gathered nearby, with many people without masks. The pope and members of his delegation were vaccinated, but most Iraqis were not.
Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Baghdad contributed.