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Pope Francis faces his riskiest trip in Iraq

2021-03-02T19:38:19.250Z


The Pope undertakes a personal effort to displace under enormous security measures to a country confined by the pandemic


The trip that Pope Francis will make to Iraq next Friday, the 33rd of his pontificate, is an old endeavor that was already canceled last year due to the pandemic.

It was also a dream of John Paul II that, like no other pontiff before, never came to fruition.

A pastoral meeting and accompaniment to the Christian minorities in the area.

But also with strong emotional and spiritual ties through visits to places like the Plain of Ur, at the base of Christianity and through the prophet Abraham, father of the three monotheistic religions.

The trip to Iraq, however, is being more questioned than any of the previous thirty due to the risks that the Vatican and Francis himself have decided to take.

Most of Francisco's expeditions since he reached Pedro's chair almost nine years ago - now he had been 15 months since his last trip to Japan and Thailand - have been directed to peripheral areas of the world or places where there are threatened minorities.

Territories, too, where it is still possible to expand the perimeter of Catholicism and reactivate trends interrupted by warlike conflicts.

This is the particular case of Iraq, an eminently Muslim country where the few Christians who remain there have suffered all kinds of attacks and threats in recent years.

The challenge, however, is amplified this time with the element of security and the health crisis to which the expedition is subjected.

Francisco will make all his trips in the six cities that he will visit (Baghdad, Mosul, Erbil, Najaf, Qaraqosh) aboard an armored and covered car (he usually does it aboard a regular passenger car or in a kind of convertible vehicle).

Security, especially since the route has been known for a long time, has been reinforced in all the places that the Pope will tread.

The memory of the double attack on January 21 that killed 32 people in Baghdad and the rocket attack on a coalition base adjacent to the Erbil airport on February 15 still weighs heavily.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni defended the opportunity to do it now in the face of persistent questions about whether it could not have been done when the pandemic is more attenuated and Iraq is not confined.

“The meaning of such a trip is to make people see that the Pope is there and is close to them.

It is a private trip, also for security, of course.

But it is a gesture of love for that land, its people and the Christians.

It is understood under this logic, which does not mean losing sight of what is being done ”.

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The Vatican, whose expedition and entourage travels fully vaccinated with the doses bought and distributed by the Holy See to the Pfizer company, insists that none of the Pope's acts throughout the three days will bring together more than 100 people.

With the exception, they clarify, of a mass in a sports stadium in Erbil where 10,000 tickets have been made available to the faithful of the 30,000 capacity that the venue has.

“It hasn't been easy, but this is probably the first possible moment for a trip like this.

All precautions have been taken from a health point of view, but perhaps the best way to interpret this trip is as an act of love.

For these people, for these Christians.

And every act of love can be interpreted as an extreme gesture, ”insisted Bruni.

The Pope's security will be the responsibility of the host country, as always.

But a small delegation from the Vatican Gendarmerie and the Swiss Guard will also travel, whose number will change depending on the risk of displacement.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-03-02

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