Iraq’s Christian minority hopes Pope’s visit would heal their wounds 

Many Christians in Iraq are eagerly waiting for Pope Francis’s visit. This first-ever papal visit to Iraq aims to provide moral support to Christian minorities in Iraq. However, many of them won’t be able to gather to greet the Pontiff here during his historic visit. Crowds are being kept away because of the pandemic.

Instead, the papal visit will be limited to a handful of small gatherings and visits to sites linked to the Bible. It is a four-day, six-city tour of the country.  

The vast majority of Iraq’s Christians will watch the tour — the first by a pontiff to Iraq — on television. A complete curfew is being imposed for the duration of the trip.

These strict measures have been taken to lessen the risks of the visit. It’s considered to be Pope Francis’s most dangerous trip to date because of a nationwide spike in coronavirus cases and an uptick in violence in the war-ravaged country. 

“Pope Francis coming to Iraq highlights the significance of our country for the faithful from all over the world,” said a senior official inside the president’s office. “It is also an affirmation of [the] Pope’s support for peace in Iraq, a testament to the reverence of Iraq’s Christians.

“This visit comes at a challenging time for Iraq, but we are taking all necessary coronavirus precautions,” the official said.

It had been widely expected that the trip, announced last December, would be canceled.

In late January, ISIS claimed a twin suicide bombing in a busy Baghdad marketplace. Rocket attacks by Iran-backed armed groups targeting US positions in the country have become more regular. Rockets hit an airbase housing US troops just three days before the Pope was due to arrive.

Mitja Leskovar, the Vatican’s envoy to Iraq, was tested positive for the virus last weekend. The country’s Covid-19 surge also continues unabated.

Still, the pope insists he won’t let Iraqis down.

On Wednesday, the pontiff said: “For some time I have wanted to meet those people who suffered so much, and meet that martyred Church.” He made no mention of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. 

“The people of Iraq are waiting for us. They were waiting for St. Pope John Paul II, who was not allowed to go,” he said, referring to a planned trip in 2000 which was canceled after a breakdown in talks between the Vatican and then-President Saddam Hussein. “The people cannot be let down for a second time. Let us pray that this trip can be carried out well.”

The Vatican called the trip “an act of love.”

“All the precautions have been taken from a health point of view,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists at a briefing on Tuesday. “The best way to interpret the journey is as an act of love; it’s a gesture of love from the Pope to the people of this land who need to receive it.”

Pope Francis is set to visit Our Lady of Salvation and several other sites linked with some of Iraq’s worst tragedies in its decades of turmoil, including Mosul, the largest city occupied, and ravaged, by ISIS.

Furthermore, a meeting will be held at a cathedral in the northern Christian-majority city of Qaraqosh by him. Immaculate Conception Church courtyard was converted into a shooting range by ISIS. They set the church’s contents ablaze, blackening the interiors and destroying its statues. ISIS members piled up the church’s bibles, books, and prayer books and burned them. A large black spot in the courtyard remains, marking the spot where they were set on fire. 

Iraq’s Christians are eagerly waiting for the Pontiff to tend to their wounds. But they also hope the trip will emphasize the plight of their shrinking community.

Source: CNN News