Pope Francis returned to Rome after his historic visit to Iraq

Pope Francis left Iraq on Monday morning at the end of the first visit in the history of a high pontiff to this country immersed in violence for years, a trip in which he defended the cause of the Iraqi Christian community.

The visit of the 84-year-old pope, who had arrived in Iraq last Friday, passed without incident.

During his stay, Francis visited the capital Baghdad, as well as Mosul and Qaraqosh, the latter two in the north of the country that suffered the terror of the Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

In the holy city of Najaf (south), the pope met with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a religious reference for most of the world’s Shiite Muslims.

“Iraq will always remain with me, in my heart.” Francis said Sunday night, after a mass in front of thousands of faithful in a stadium in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Pope Francis prays for the victims of the war in ‘Hosh al-Bieaa’, the Church Square, in the old city of Mosul, Iraq. March 7, 2021. REUTERS / Yara Nardi

Pope Francis was eager to meet the Christians of Iraq (1% of the population today, down from 6% 20 years ago) and he dedicated his first trip abroad in 15 months to this predominantly Muslim country.

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, except for Sunday in Erbil, the pope was unable to gather crowds as he does on each of his trips abroad.

Nevertheless, traveled 1,445 km through Iraq, most of the time by plane or helicopter, flying over areas where clandestine jihadist cells still exist, following the defeat of the Islamic State in late 2017.

In Iraq, the pope denounced “terrorism that abuses religion”, called for “peace” and “unity” in the Middle East and lamented the departure of Christians from the region as “incalculable damage.”

Pope Francis (right) meets with the top Iraqi Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Najaf, Iraq. March 6, 2021. Office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani / delivery via Reuters. THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES OR FILE.

He also participated in an ecumenical prayer with the different religions present in Iraq for millennia in Ur, birthplace according to the Bible of the patriarch Abraham, father of monotheism.

Public health experts expressed their concern before the trip that the crowds produced during the tour could become sources of coronavirus infection in a country where infections are getting worse and few people are vaccinated. The pope and his entourage have been vaccinated, but most Iraqis have not.

Iraq is witnessing a new wave of coronavirus cases fueled by a more contagious strain that was first identified in the United States. Authorities in Iraq recorded 4,068 new cases on March 6, according to the Health Ministry, well above rates at the beginning of the year.

 In total, 13,500 people have died and 720,000 cases have been confirmed in Iraq.