Pope Francis has today embarked on a 4-day journey to Iraq to meet with the Christian community there who have been suppressed by Islamic Insugency.
The Pope is expected to visit Mosul, Ur – the birthplace of Abraham and will meet with the Shiite leader, Grand Ayotollah Ali al-Sistani.
He will be going with an entourage of 10,000 security detail as protection and he may not be able to meet with so many because of social distancing restrictions.
The meeting has been highly publicized with billboards across the nation. The Pope had sent a message of hope in a long message. His visit will span from March 5 -March 8. Read his speech in part below:
“Dear brothers and sisters in Iraq, Assalam Alaykum (in English: peace be upon you)! In a few days I shall finally be among you. I long to meet you, to see your faces, to visit your land, ancient and extraordinary cradle of civilisation. I come as a pilgrim, as a penitent pilgrim to implore forgiveness and reconciliation from the Lord after years of war and terrorism, to ask God for consolation for hearts and healing for wounds. And I come among you as a pilgrim of peace, to repeat: “You are all brothers”.
Yes, I come as a pilgrim of peace in search of fraternity, animated by the desire to pray together and to walk together, also with brothers and sisters of other religious traditions, in the sign of Father Abraham, who unites Muslims, Jews and Christians in one family. Dear Christian brothers and sisters, who have borne witness to faith in Jesus in the midst of very difficult trials, I look forward with trepidation to seeing you.
I am honoured to meet a martyred Church. Thank you for your witness. May the many, too many martyrs you have known help us to persevere in the humble strength of love. You still have in your eyes the images of destroyed houses and desecrated churches, and in your hearts the wounds of broken hearts and abandoned homes. I want to bring you an affectionate caress from the whole church, which is close to you and to the tormented Middle East and encourages you to go forward. Let us not allow the terrible suffering you have experienced, which grieves me so much, to prevail.
Let us not give up in the face of the spread of evil: the ancient wellsprings of wisdom in your lands guide us elsewhere, to do as Abraham did who, though he left everything, never lost hope and trusting God, he gave birth to a descendant as numerous as the stars of heaven. Dear brothers and sisters, let us look to the stars. There is our promise. Dear brothers and sisters, I have thought a lot about you during these years, about you who have suffered much but have not fallen. To you, Christians, Muslims; to you, peoples, like the Yazidis, the Yazidis, who have suffered so much, so much. All of you brothers, all of you. Now I come to your blessed and wounded land as a pilgrim of hope.
From you, in Nineveh, resounded the prophecy of Jonah, who prevented destruction and brought new hope, the hope of God. Let us be infected by this hope, which encourages us to rebuild and to begin again. And in these hard times of pandemic, let us help each other to strengthen fraternity, to build together a future of peace. Together, brothers and sisters of every religious tradition. From you, millennia ago, Abraham began his journey.
Today it is up to us to continue it, with the same spirit, walking together along the paths of peace. For this reason, I invoke upon you all the peace and the blessing of the Lord. And I ask you all to do the same as Abraham: walk in hope and never stop looking to the stars. And I ask you all to please accompany me in prayer. Shukran (in English: Thank you)! Thank you.”
Pope Francis