"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 the brothers and sisters of other religious traditions in the sign of Father Abraham who brings together Muslims, Jews and Christians in a single family ".
Pope Francis said this in a video message to the Iraqi people on the eve of his departure for Baghdad.
"I come as a penitent pilgrim to implore the Lord for forgiveness and reconciliation after years of war and terrorism, to ask God for the consolation of hearts and the healing of wounds".
The Pope said this in a video message to the Iraqi people on the eve of his departure for Baghdad.
The Pope, in the video message to the Iraqi people, on the eve of his departure for Baghdad, addresses a particular thought to Christians: "You have witnessed faith in Jesus in the midst of very hard trials, I look forward to seeing you. I am honored 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 power of love ".
"You still have in your eyes the images of destroyed houses and desecrated churches, and in your heart the wounds of affections left and abandoned houses. I would like to bring you the affectionate caress of the whole Church - says Pope Francis -, which is close to you and to the tormented the Middle East and encourages you to go forward. To the terrible sufferings you have experienced and which pain me so much, we will not allow to prevail. Let us not give up in the face of the spread of evil ".
The Pope, in a video message to the Iraqi people, on the eve of his departure for Baghdad, underlines: "I will finally be with you. I wish so much to meet you, to see your faces, to visit your land, an ancient and extraordinary cradle of civilization".
"Dear brothers and sisters, I have thought so much of you in recent years, of you who have suffered a lot, but have not been downcast. To you, Christians, Muslims; to you, peoples, like the Yazidi people, the Yazidis, who have suffered so much, so much; all brothers, all. Now I come to your blessed and wounded land - the Pope continues - as a pilgrim of hope. From you, in Nineveh, the prophecy of Jonah resounded, which prevented the destruction and brought a new hope , God's hope. Let us allow ourselves to be infected by this hope, which encourages us to rebuild and start over. 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 the paths of peace! ".
The Pope's video message is in Italian but is opened by the greeting in Arabic 'assalam lakum!'
(peace to you) and it is closed by 'shukran!'
(thank you).
