Francis called for a ‘harmonious coexistence’ of people from different backgrounds and cultures as he led a prayer in a square overlooking the ruins of the Syro-Catholic Church in the Old City of Mosul. Once a stronghold of ISIS, the entire city was destroyed in 2017 during the nine-month struggle for its control.
“Here in Mosul, the tragic consequences of war and hostility are all too clear,” Francis said. “How cruel it is that this land, the cradle of civilization, has had to be hit by such a barbaric blow, destroyed with ancient places of worship and forcibly displaced or killed by thousands of people – Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and others!”
Thousands of people were killed during the struggle to retake Mosul from ISIS, which controlled the city between 2014 and 2017.
After leaving Mosul, Francis travels to the Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq. Like Mosul, Qaraqosh has been controlled by the ISIS terrorist group for more than two years.
The pope visited the church of the Immaculate Conception, where he gave a talk and led a prayer. He was greeted there by thousands of people – a clear difference in his visits to other places in Iraq. The government has instituted a total curfew for the four-day papal visit to keep health and safety risks to a minimum.
Late Sunday, the pope would hold the mass at the Franso Hariri Stadium in Erbil, according to Iraqi state-run Iraqiya TV. About 8,000 people gathered in the stadium to welcome the pope there, security officials told CNN. According to officials, the plan was to have the stadium with 35,000 seats with about 50% capacity, with an empty seat between each of the participants. However, images of the stadium showed that the stadium stands are full of people sitting close together without social distance.
Earlier Sunday, Francis met with Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdish regional government, the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq.
It is believed that the pope has long wanted to go to Iraq, which figures strongly in the Old Testament, and whose languishing Christian minority suffered greatly during the long cycles of violence in the country.
There was probably one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, before the American invasion in 2003, and there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. About 80% of them have fled since then, according to leading Christian clergy there.
He arrived in Baghdad on Friday, where he was met by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Francis later met clerics and other officials at a church in Baghdad where the bloody massacre took place in 2010.
Francis then returned to Baghdad on Saturday afternoon to celebrate Mass in the Chaldean Cathedral of Saint Joseph. He plans to leave Iraq on Monday.
CNN’s Delia Gallagher, Aqeel Najm, Ben Wedeman, Ghazi Balkiz, Hamdi Alkhshali, Mohammed Muwafaq and Ben Westcott reported.