Pope Francis (right) meets and comforts Abdullah Kurdi (left), the father of Syrian refugee Baby Ilan Kurdi, who drowned in a boat overturn accident while heading for Greece in 2015 from Erbil in northern Iraq on the 7th. Erbil = AP Yonhap News
Islan Kurdi. This is a three-year-old Syrian refugee baby who drowned after a boat wreck while heading for Greece with his family in September 2015. His body, which was pushed on the beach of Bordum, a resort in Turkey, shocked the international community and became a symbol of the refugee crisis where humanity was destroyed and the call for magnetism in the global village.
Pope Francis, who is visiting Iraq for the first time among all the popes, revived Kurdi on the 7th (local time) after five years. The Pope met Kurdi’s father that night in Erbil, a northern Iraqi city. Abdullah Kurdi, his father, survived the loss of his wife and children in an abalone accident, and now runs a charity in Erbil. In the photos released by the Holy See, the Pope looks at Abdullah with his head down and tenderly extends his hand. The Holy See said, “The Pope deeply sympathized with the grief of his father for the loss of a child,” and said, “Abdullah also expressed his gratitude for the Pope’s comfort.”
Foreign media gave meaning to the fact that Pope Francis met the Kurdi family on the last schedule of his trip to Iraq (3 nights and 4 days). The Daily New York Times in the United States evaluated that “they tried to strengthen the ties between Christianity and Muslims.” The actual Pope’s tour was unconventional, but his gaze was always on’peace and reconciliation’. The Pope emphasized at a mass mass held at the Erbil football stadium before meeting Kurdi’s father, “I heard voices of sorrow and loss, but at the same time I heard voices of hope and consolation.”
The body of Alan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who died when a small boat overturned while heading for Greece in September 2015, was found on the beach of Bordum, Turkey. Bordum = Reuters Yonhap News
Even in the northern city of Mosul, which I visited just before, he emphasized the healing of wounds through hope, with the unification of “peace is stronger than war”. Mosul was the oldest Christian community until the international terrorist Islamic State (IS) invaded in 2014. It is analyzed that the previous day’s first meeting with Muslim Shiite priests in Najaf, a Shi’ite holy site in southern Iraq, and meetings with Christian, Islam, and Yazidi leaders at the ancient ruins of the Ur Plains are part of efforts to preach the value of harmony.
Reuters reported, “The Pope went to Iraq under various conditions to deliver the message that the two religions need a peaceful coexistence,” said Reuters. The Pope moves to the capital, Baghdad, finishes all tours, and leaves for Rome on the 8th.
Park Ji-young reporter [email protected]
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