Pope Francis is welcomed at Erbil Airport in northern Iraq on the 7th (local time).▶ Click here for a larger view
Pope Francis, the first Catholic pope to visit Iraq and continuing its historical course, is continuing its peaceful movement, including meeting Christians who have suffered from attacks by the Islamic State (IS), a Sunni extremist terrorist organization, reported by foreign media.
The Holy See hopes that his visit will help unite the Christian community in Iraq and encourage them to overcome the suffering of decades of war.
According to AFP and AP, Pope Francis arrived in Erbil in northern Iraq on the morning of the 7th (local time), and is planning to lead a prayer to commemorate the victims of the war in Mosul, Nineveh province in northern Iraq, which was one of the main battlegrounds against the IS.
Mosul, the biggest stronghold of IS, was liberated from IS in 2017 after a repulse battle involving several countries.
Later, the Pope took a helicopter to visit Karakosi, 30 km from Mosul. Karakosi is Iraq’s oldest and largest Christian village, destroyed by the IS in 2014 and has been slowly restored since 2017.
Signs welcoming the Pope’s visit are posted in Mosul, Iraq, on the 7th (local time).▶ Click here for a larger view
Here, the Pope meets and talks with Christians who have fled from the time of the IS rule and then return to the church, and then, after being burned down by the IS, the pope fulfills a prayer schedule in the recently restored cathedral.
The number of Christians who have been in Iraq for more than 2,000 years reached 1.5 million in 2003. However, the number of them has gradually decreased, and recently, only about 400,000 people, which account for only 1% of the population, remain.
In particular, IS agents are known to have been repressed when they ruled northern Iraq, killing Christians if they did not convert, and imposing additional taxes on non-Muslim citizens.
“This visit by the Pope is very important,” said Fr. George Yahula, a Christian leader in Iraq. “It will raise the morale of our years of wars and hardships.”
To greet the Pope, local residents are busy preparing two-meter-long Syrian-style golden thread for prayer shawls, AFP said.
The Pope’s bodyguards are raising their alert to the peak, as traces of IS are still being found in northern Iraq.
Thousands of military and policemen were also put in, while the Pope showed a wide-ranging walk that traveled more than 1,400 km in planes, helicopters, and bulletproof vehicles this time.
The Pope has publicly expressed his desire to visit Iraq several times since his enthronement in 2013. He arrived in Iraq on the 5th and is working on a three-night, four-day schedule.
On the 6th, it held a historical meeting with Islamic Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Alsistani and sent a message of’peaceful coexistence’.
Iraqi soldiers are on the lookout in Mosul, Iraq, visited by Pope Francis on the 7th (local time).▶ Click here for a larger view
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