According to the AP and AFP news agency, Pope Francis, who arrived in Mosul by helicopter from Erbil, a city in the Kurdish Autonomous region in northern Iraq, in the early morning of the last day of his three-day visit to Iraq, peacefully coexisted in Mosul Square, adjacent to four churches destroyed in the course of the war with the IS. Appealed.
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One of the oldest Christian communities in the world, Mosul was the largest base of the terrorist organization until the defeat of the IS in 2017.
In the northern Iraqi province of Ninawa, where Mosul belongs, an IS attack forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate.
“The tragic expulsion of Christians from Iraq and elsewhere has done innumerable damage to individuals and communities, as well as to the regions where they left,” the Pope said in a speech against the partially collapsed Altahera Catholic cathedral in Mosul. They prayed for Christians in Iraq and the Middle East to stay in their hometowns.
The Pope lamented, “How cruel it is that this country, which used to be the cradle of civilization, was damaged by such a brutal attack, the ancient places of worship were destroyed, and many Muslims, Christians, and Yazidi were forcibly displaced or killed.” He mentioned the adversity of the Yazidi, who were subject to massacres, kidnappings, and sexual slaves.
“But today we reaffirm that brotherhood lasts longer than brotherhood, hope is stronger than hate, and peace is more powerful than war.”
The Pope subsequently visited Karakosi, a city 30 km from Mosul, and held Mass.
Karakosi is Iraq’s oldest and largest Christian village, destroyed by the IS in 2014 and has been slowly restored since 2017.
At the mass of the Karakosi Cathedral, called Altahera, like the Mosul Cathedral, the Pope urged believers to “don’t stop dreaming. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope” and comforted “It’s time to rebuild and start over.”
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After returning to the Kurdish Autonomous City Erbil, the Pope held a mass mass at a local soccer stadium to comfort Christians who survived under the IS.
Even at the risk of spreading a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), thousands of people attended the Erbil Mass and welcomed the Pope.
“I heard voices of sorrow and loss while I was with you, but at the same time I heard voices of hope and consolation,” the Pope blessed. “Now the time is coming for me to return to Rome, but Iraq will always remain in my heart.”
Erbil has been a camp for refugees who have escaped the violence of IS for many years.
The Pope also met and comforted Abdullah Kurdi, the father of Alan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who drowned while on a refugee ship in 2015 after Mass at Erbil.
Alan, his brother, and his mother drowned in a small boat from Turkey to Kos Island in Greece in September 2015, while the boat turned over and drowned.
The photograph of Allan, found lying prone on the coast of southwestern Turkey, has become a symbol of the tragedy of refugees around the world.
On this day, the Pope said he had talked with Abdullah Kurdi for a long time and listened to the pain of his father, who had lost his family.
After completing his visit to Erbil, the Pope will move to Baghdad, the capital, and depart for Rome the next morning.
The Pope has publicly expressed his desire to visit Iraq, which has been damaged by the war several times since his accession in 2013.
On the 6th of the previous day, he visited Najaf, a Shi’ite holy place in southern Iraq, and held a historical meeting with Islamic Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Alsistani and delivered the message of’peaceful coexistence’.
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.
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