“I heard a voice of hope” at the last event of the Pope’s visit to Iraq

The Pope, who arrives at the Franco Hariri Stadium in Erbil, Iraq on the 7th, prays for a blessing to the people. © AFP=News1

Pope Francis said “I will keep Iraq in my heart” while holding a massive Mass, the last event of a historic visit to Iraq, in Erbil, an autonomous city in the Kurdish region.

According to AFP, after meeting Christians who survived in an area dominated by an extremist Islamic group, the Islamic State (IS), the Pope gave a benediction to thousands at the Franço Hariri Stadium in Erbil.

The Franco Hariri Stadium is named after an Iraqi Christian politician who was assassinated by extremists 20 years ago. At the end of the Mass, the Pope pledged to keep Iraq in mind even if he returned to the Vatican on the 8th.

“As I was with you, I heard voices of sadness and loss, but also voices of hope and comfort,” he said. “Now the time is coming to return to Rome, but Iraq will always remain in my mind,” he added.

Erbil is where pro-Iran forces launched a rocket attack just a few weeks ago. Erbil is like a refuge for many Christians to escape years of violence, such as the massacre of IS jihadists in 2014 and subsequent terrorism. The Pope, who was visiting Iraq, visited and comforted Christian communities from all over the country.

Earlier on that day, the Pope visited the Catholic Cathedral of Altahera in Mosul, which was a fortress of IS and is now ruined. The Pope pleaded for Christians in Iraq and the Middle East to stay in their hometowns rather than leave in terror.

The Pope said that the tragic escape of Christians due to the war would cause innumerable harm not only to individuals and regions, but also to the society from which they left.

Later, he visited Karakosi, Iraq’s oldest and largest Christian city, to hold Mass. Here the Pope said, “Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope,” and “Now is the time to rebuild and start over.”

The IS attack has caused hundreds of thousands of Christians in the northern Iraqi province of Niniwa, where Mosul belongs, to abandon their hometowns and flee. The Iraqi Christian population declined from about 1.5 million before the US-led Iraq war in 2003 to 400,000.

Pope Francis has said many times since he was enthroned in 2013 that he would like to visit Iraq, and this time he has achieved his dream. He visited Iraq for the first time among the Catholic Popes on the 5th and attended the schedule of 4 days and 3 nights.

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