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 celebrate an outdoor mass on the last day of the very first papal visit to the country.
The Vatican hopes that the rural Christian communities will rally the rural visit 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 during a historic meeting Saturday with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Pope Francis, right, meets on Saturday, March 6, 2021 with Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Najaf, Iraq. (Associated Press)
Francis went to the northern city of Mosul, which was badly damaged in the war against IS, to pray for Iraq’s war victims. In a scene unimaginable just four years ago, he erected a stage on a city square surrounded by the remains of four damaged churches belonging to some of Iraq’s numerous Christian rituals and denominations. A jubilant crowd welcomed him.
POP, TOP IRAQ SHIITE CLERIC HOLD HISTORICAL, SYMBOLIC ASSEMBLY
IS overran Mosul in June 2014 and declared a caliphate stretching from territory in northern Syria to deep in northern and western Iraq. It was from Mosul’s al-Nuri mosque that the leader of the group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his only public appearance when he gave a Friday sermon in which he urged all Muslims to call him a ‘caliph’. follow.
Pope Francis, right, is welcomed by Muslim clerics when he arrives at Irbil International Airport, Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
Mosul had a deep symbolic interest in IS and became the bureaucratic and financial backbone of the group. It was finally liberated in July 2017 after a fierce nine-month-long battle. Between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed, according to a then-AP investigation. Al-Baghdadi was killed in a 2019 US offensive in Syria.
Children in their festive attire waving Iraqi flags at the camera as they arrive to pray with Pope Francis for the victims of the war on Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square, in Mosul, Iraq, once the de facto capital of IS, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
Francis will later travel by helicopter across the Nineveh Plains to the small Christian community of Qaraqosh, to which only a fraction of families have returned after fleeing the 2014 IS attack. He will hear testimonies from residents and pray in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, which has been burnt down and repaired by IS in recent years.
He concludes the day with a mass in the stadium in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous North Kurdish region, which is expected to draw up to 10,000 people. He arrived in Irbil early Sunday, where he was greeted by children in traditional dress and one dressed as a pope.
Iraqi security forces deployed in Mosul, northern Iraq, once the de facto capital of IS, where Pope Francis will pray for the victims of the war on Sunday, March 7, 2021, on Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square. (Associated Press)
Iraq declared victory over IS in 2017, and although the extremist group no longer controls territory, it still carries out sporadic attacks, especially in the north. The country has also seen a series of recent rocket attacks by militants backed by Iran against US targets, violence related to tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The brutal three-year rule of the IS group in much of northern and western Iraq, and the grueling campaign against it, has left a huge system of destruction. Reconstruction efforts have stalled amid years of financial crisis, leaving entire neighborhoods in ruins. Many Iraqis had to rebuild their own homes at their own expense.
The Christian minority in Iraq has been particularly hard hit. The militants forced them to choose between repentance, death or the payment of a special tax for non-Muslims. Thousands fled, leaving behind homes and churches destroyed or commandeered by extremists.
Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani, right, greets Pope Francis on arrival at Irbil International Airport, Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
The Christian population of Iraq, which traces its history back to the earliest days of the faith, has been declining rapidly, from about 1.5 million before the US leadership in 2003 that plunged the country into chaos to just a few hundred thousand today.
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Francis hopes to deliver a message of hope, underlined by the historic nature of the visit and the fact that it is his first international trip since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Iraqi Kurdish officials welcome Pope Francis, center, as he arrives at Irbil Airport, Iraq, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Associated Press)
Prior to the trip, public health experts expressed concern that large gatherings could serve as events for the coronavirus in a country suffering from a worse outbreak where few have been vaccinated.
The Vatican has said it is taking precautions, including keeping the fog outside in a stadium that will only be partially filled. But during the visit, crowds came close, and many people did not wear masks. The pope and members of his delegation were vaccinated, but most Iraqis were not.
Associated Press author Samya Kullab in Baghdad contributed.