QARAQOSH, Iraq (AP) – Pope Francis urged Christians in Iraq to forgive the injustices committed against them by Muslim extremists and rebuild while he visited church ruins and found ecstatic crowds in the historic center of the community, which was almost erased by the The horrible reign of the Islamic State group.
At each stop in northern Iraq, the remnants of its Christian population appeared, joyful, howling, dressed in colorful clothing, although heavy security prevented Francis from diving into the crowd as he normally would. However, they just seemed happy that they had not been forgotten.
It was a sign of desperation for support among an old community that doesn’t know if it can resist. Traditionally Christian cities punctuating the plains of Nineveh in the north were emptied when Christians – like many Muslims – fled the Islamic State group’s attack in 2014. Only a few have returned to their homes since ISIS’s defeat in Iraq declared four years ago , and the rest remains scattered elsewhere in Iraq or abroad.
The bells rang in the city of Qaraqosh when the pope arrived. Speaking to a crowded Church of the Immaculate Conception, Francis said “forgiveness” is a key word for Christians.
“The road to full recovery may still be a long one, but I ask you, please, not to be discouraged. What is needed is the ability to forgive, but also the courage to not give up. ”The Qaraqosh church was extensively renovated after being vandalized by IS militants during the occupation of the city, making it a symbol of recovery efforts.
For the Vatican, the continued presence of Christians in Iraq is vital to keeping alive the faith communities that have existed here since the time of Christ. The population declined from about 1.5 million before the United States-led invasion in 2003, which plunged the country into chaos, to just a few hundred thousand today.
Francisco’s visit to Iraq, which took place on his last Sunday, was intended to encourage them to stay and help rebuild the country and restore what he called an “elaborate carpet” of faith and ethnic groups.
In striking images earlier on Sunday, Francisco, dressed in white, took a red carpet stage in a square in the main northern city, Mosul, surrounded by the gray shells excavated from four churches, almost destroyed in the war to overthrow the Islamic people. State group in the city.
It was a scene that would have been unimaginable years ago. Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, was at the center of the so-called ISIS “caliphate” and witnessed the worst of the group’s rule inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others, including beheadings and mass killings.
“How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilization, was afflicted by such a barbaric coup,” said Francisco, “with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people – Muslims, Christians, Yazidis – who were cruelly annihilated by terrorism – and others forcibly displaced or killed. ”
He deviated from his prepared speech to address the plight of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which has been subjected to mass murder, kidnapping and sexual slavery at the hands of ISIS.
“Today, however, we reaffirm our belief that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace is more powerful than war.”
The square where he spoke is home to four different churches – Syriac Catholic, Orthodox-Armenian, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean – each in ruins.
ISIS inflicted atrocities against all communities, including Muslims, during its three-year rule in much of northern and western Iraq. But the Christian minority was 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.
Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has become the IS’s bureaucratic and financial backbone. It was from the Mosul al-Nuri mosque that the then IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his only public appearance when he gave a sermon on Friday asking all Muslims to follow him as a “caliph”.
It took a fierce nine-month battle to finally free the city in July 2017, during which 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. The war left a streak of destruction in Mosul and the north, and many Iraqis were left on their own to rebuild in the midst of a years-long financial crisis.
Rev. Raed Kallo was among the few Christians who returned to Mosul after ISIS was defeated. “My Muslim brothers received me after the liberation of the city with great hospitality and love,” he said on stage in front of the pontiff.
Before the IS, he had a parish of 500 Christian families. Most have emigrated abroad and now there are only 70 families left, he said. “But today I live among 2 million Muslims who call me Father Raed,” he said.
Gutayba Aagha, the Muslim head of the Independent Social and Cultural Council for Families in Mosul, encouraged other Christians to return.
“In the name of the council, I invite all of our Christian brothers to return to this city, its properties, its properties and its businesses.”
Throughout his four-day visit, Francis conveyed 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.
In Qaraqosh, Francisco urged its residents to continue to dream and to forgive.
“Forgiveness is necessary to remain in love, to remain a Christian,” he said.
He spoke after a Qaraqosh resident, Doha Sabah Abdallah, told him how his son and two other young men were killed in a mortar attack on August 6, 2014 when IS was approaching the city. Their death was the alarm for the rest of the residents to flee.
“The martyrdom of these three angels was a clear warning: if it weren’t for them, the people of Baghdad would have remained and would inevitably have fallen into the hands of ISIS”, referring to the name of Qaraqosh used by the residents. “The death of three saved the entire city.”
She said now that it would be up to the survivors to “try to forgive the attacker.”
Before leaving Qaraqosh, the pontiff signed a book of honor, writing: “From this Church, destroyed and rebuilt, a symbol of the hope of Qaraqosh and all of Iraq, I ask God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, for the gift of peace.”
Francisco 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.
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.
___
Kullab reported from Baghdad.