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In the shadow of the corona and escalation, the pope is on a historic visit to Iraq
The leader of the Catholic Church will try to strengthen the Christian communities in the country, which have been persecuted to the point of almost extinction by ISIS, and to promote interfaith dialogue.
Security has been stepped up after rocket fire against US targets, and a curfew has been imposed in several areas to halt the spread of the epidemic
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Iraq
Pope Francis
News agencies
Friday, 05 March 2021, 10:16
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Security man beside a poster ahead of the pope's visit to Baghdad (Photo: Reuters)
Pope Francis will arrive today (Friday) on a historic visit to Iraq, which will be his first world trip since the onset of the corona plague last year.
The Catholic Church leader's first ever visit to the country will last four days, and is designed to strengthen faith among Iraq's declining Christian community and promote interfaith dialogue.
The pope will meet with Shiite leaders in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, lead a prayer service in the city of Mosul and hold a mass at the stadium.
He insisted on continuing his program as usual despite a renewed outbreak of the corona virus and an escalation in the security situation in the country.
About 10,000 security personnel will be deployed in Iraq during Francis' visit, along with a curfew imposed in various parts of the country to stop the spread of the plague.
In recent weeks, rocket attacks against American and foreign targets in the country, attributed to Iran-backed Shiite militias, have intensified.
After the last of them, on Wednesday, the pope stressed that he "will not disappoint again" the Christian community in Iraq.
He referred to the cancellation of Pope John Paul II's planned visit on Monday in 1989 after talks with dictator Saddam Hussein did not go well.
More on Walla!
A rocket attack on a base where American forces are stationed in Iraq
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More than 20 years later, the Christian communities in Iraq, one of the oldest in the world, have shrunk from 1.4 million to about 250,000.
Many have fled since the 2003 US invasion that overthrew Saddam's regime but led to the onset of religious and sectarian violence.
The persecution of Christians in Iraq has worsened after ISIS occupied northern Iraq in 2014, destroyed churches, seized community property and forced them to pay taxes, convert to Islam, leave the territory or face the threat of death.
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