After feeling "in a cage" during confinement, Pope Francis began his first trip in more than a year on Friday.
And not just any: the Sovereign Pontiff arrived in Baghdad in Iraq in the morning, where he intends to comfort one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, weakened by years of persecution.
A visit already described as historic and which "results from an emergency", according to the Vatican, despite political instability and the persistent threat of Covid-19 in the Iraqi state.
On the program: three days across the country, a meeting with the highest Shiite dignitary and small committee celebrations, pandemic obliges.
Why is this visit historic?
As short as it is, this visit is about to go down in history.
It is the first time that a head of the Catholic Church has trampled on Iraqi soil, the cradle of Abraham, the patriarch whose Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions are claimed.
Before him, Pope John Paul II had already tried to go there in 2000, without success because of the violence.
“You cannot disappoint a people twice,” Pope Francis stressed, confirming his determination to meet “his Iraqi brothers and sisters”.
Beyond its original character, this visit will highlight the importance of an ancient and deeply wounded community, deciphers Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, historian, specialist of the Levant in Antiquity and researcher at the CNRS.
“The Christians of Iraq have an exceptional history: they have been constituted since Antiquity as an autonomous church, dissociating itself from the Roman world.
This minority community, which has never lived under Christian rule, has suffered years of persecution and has had to flee its country.
The Pope's visit will remind him that it has its full place and importance in Iraq ”.
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Which program ?
These three days are already shaping up to be busy for the Sovereign Pontiff.
He should go out to meet the various Christian communities in the country (Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syriac Catholics, etc.).
Above all, his program will be marked by a highly symbolic meeting: that of the great Shia Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, one of the main spiritual authorities of Shiism.
Here again, this will be a first: no contact between this minority branch of Islam (but to which 60% of Iraqis claim) and the Holy See had not yet taken place.
“The image of these two men of peace remains politically eagerly awaited, as it pleads for a de-escalation of tensions between Christendom and the Muslim world in the region.
It is certainly a symbol, but symbols sometimes have effects ... ”, notes the historian.
Finally on Sunday, Pope Francis will travel to Mosul, the former capital of the Islamic State group, where he will preside over a prayer in memory of the victims of the war.
Then he will visit the Christian city of Qaraqosh, so damaged in 2014 by the ravages of the Islamists.
Why the trip promises to be under high tension?
The "trip will be extraordinary", warned the Vatican, a few days before the Pope's departure.
Because the country, still suffocated by the Covid, remains in confinement.
All of François's movements will be in a covered car, in order to reduce the risk of crowds.
Likewise, there will be no walkabout.
The meeting places will be subject to a strict gauge.
Sunday, the mass which will take place at the Erbil stadium with a capacity of 28,000 people, will welcome only 10,000 faithful carefully spaced.
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In addition to the pandemic, the visit must also deal with the prevailing climate of violence.
In Baghdad, the Iraqi Dominican Amir Jajé, one of the organizers of the visit, even admitted that the event was almost postponed.
Especially after the double suicide bombing of January 21 in the capital, which left 32 dead, and following rocket fire at an American base, on February 16 in Erbil ... a destination on the program of the papal visit.
What place in Iraq for Christians?
Marked by years of persecution, led in particular by the Islamic State, thousands of Christians in Iraq have had to flee their country.
"Since the invasion of the American army in 2003, the number of faithful has literally collapsed: they are today 400,000 against 1.5 million twenty years ago", specifies Jean-Pascal Gay, professor of history of Christianity.
Above all, many have suffered from a lackluster image in the country, marred by the invasion of the United States.
“During the Iraq war, President George W. Bush declared that the US military was leading a
crusade
to save Christians.
The latter were then assimilated for a long time to Western invaders, to enemies, ”slips Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet.
A trauma among many others that the papal visit will try to appease this Friday.