The
Pope Francis
arrived Friday in Iraq for a historic journey under protection and despite the pandemic, a "martyrdom earth" where he heard comforting one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
The 84-year-old sovereign pontiff, who said he arrived as a
"pilgrim of peace"
, landed at 11:00 GMT in Baghdad for a three-day visit during which he will also
reach
out to Muslims by meeting Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, more high authority for many Shiites in Iraq and around the world.
The program is ambitious:
Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Erbil, Mosul, Qaraqosh
.
From Friday to Monday, the Pope will travel 1,445 km in a country still struck Wednesday by deadly rocket fire, the latest episode of Iranian-American tensions.
On Saturday, for the first time in history, the Pope will be received in
Najaf
(south of the country) by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in person.
The Pope will also participate in a prayer in
Ur, birthplace of Abraham
in the south, with Shiite, Sunni, Yazidi and Sabaean dignitaries.
This exceptional visit constitutes the 33rd trip outside Italy of Pope Francis since his election in March 2013. He began his pontificate outside the walls with a long
apostolic trip to Brazil
in July 2013, on the occasion of World Youth Day .
He then went to four of the five continents, surveying South Korea, the island of Cuba or the United Arab Emirates ... Including this stay in Iraq, François will have visited some fifty countries during his travels. different.
In November 2019, he traveled to Japan for his last trip before the health crisis.
Since then, all his planned trips, to the Island of Malta, Indonesia or South Sudan, had been canceled.
A period of papal immobility which constitutes a great first for forty years at the Vatican.
In the footsteps of
Paul VI
, who had inaugurated this modern form of traveling around the world,
John Paul II
had created in 1979 a true itinerant papal style, widely imitated by his successors.
Before this period of pandemic, François, in particular, accumulated almost five trips per year on average, almost as many as his illustrious Polish predecessor.