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Pope Francis made a rousing call for peace on the first day of his historic visit to war-battered Iraq today, pleading with his hosts for an ‘end to acts of violence and extremism, factions and intolerance’.Â
The 84-year-old, who defied security fears and the pandemic to become the first pontiff to travel to Iraq, urged religious faiths to ‘look beyond our differences’ in a country ravaged by ISIS which is home to one of the world’s most persecuted Christian communities. Â
Delivering a message of hope to worshippers in Iraq, he paid tribute to the ‘age-old presence of Christians in this land, and their contributions to the life of the nation’.Â
But he also reached out to Yazidis who were killed and tormented by ISIS, saying that ‘here, among so many who have suffered, my thoughts turn to the Yazidis, innocent victims of senseless and brutal atrocities’.Â
Francis, who said he was travelling to Iraq as a ‘pilgrim of peace’ on his first foreign trip since the start of the pandemic, will also extend a hand to Shiite Muslims when he meets Iraq’s top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.Â
‘Only if we learn to look beyond our differences and see each other as members of the same human family will we be able to begin an effective process of rebuilding and leave to future generations a better, more just and more humane world,’ he said, describing religious minorities as a ‘precious resource’ to be protected.Â
He also urged Iraqi officials to ‘combat the scourge of corruption, misuse of power and disregard for law,’ in a country consistently ranked one of the most graft-tainted by global watchdogs.  Â
Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday for the start of a four-day visit to the country – the first ever by a pontiff – designed to give hope to its Christian population which is among the world’s most persecuted
Pope Francis arrives at the Sayidat al-Nejat (Our Lady of Salvation) cathedral in Baghdad today on the first day of his historic visit to Iraq where he began with a rousing call for peaceÂ
Francis was met at the airport by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi (right) who delivered a greeting of ‘love and peace’
The 84-year-old Pope told reporters during his flight that he was ‘happy’ to be travelling again after a year ‘caged’ at the Vatican, and viewed it has his duty to visit a country ‘that has been martyred for years’
Francis has pushed ahead with the trip despite fears for his safety amid a deteriorating security situation in Iraq which saw an American contractor die in an attack on a military base this week
Francis’s visit is the first to Iraq by a Pope, after John Paul II was forced to call off a journey in 1999 amid fears for his safety and political pressure on the Saddam regime
The pope left Rome early Friday for the four-day trip, his first abroad since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics saying he felt ‘caged’ inside the Vatican.
‘I’m happy to resume travel, and this symbolic trip is also a duty to a land that has been martyred for years,’ he told journalists aboard his plane.
His plane landed at 1:55 pm, waving the flags of both Vatican City and Iraq as it taxied on the tarmac at Baghdad International Airport, where Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi greeted him.
‘With love and peace, Iraq’s people and government are welcoming His Holiness Pope Francis and reaffirming the depths of this humanitarian bond,’ Kadhemi said ahead of the pope’s arrival.
While Francis has been vaccinated, Iraq has been gripped by a second wave of infection with 5,000 plus new cases a day, prompting authorities to impose a full lockdown during the pontiff’s visit.
‘I’ll try to follow directions and not shake hands with everyone, but I don’t want to stay too far,’ Francis said ahead of his arrival.Â
Francis is greeted by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi as he lands at Baghdad airport on Friday afternoon local time
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi speaks with Pope Francis after the pontiff arrived at Baghdad airport
Francis is due to spend four days in Iraq where he will visit Christian sites attacked by Islamic extremists, offer prayers for the victims of war, and meet with the country’s top shiite cleric
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi welcomes Pope Francis at Baghdad Airport in a picture released on his official Twitter account on Friday
President Barham Salih speaks with Pope Francis after his arrival at the Presidential palace
Iraq’s President Barham Salih welcomes Pope Francis during a ceremony at the presidental palace in Baghdad
Iraqi children dressed in traditional outfits join a protocol member wearing a protective mask at Baghdad airprot
Iraqi honor guards stand in front of the presidential Palace before Pope Francis’ arrival in Baghdad, Iraq
Iraqi honour guard stand in line at the presidential palace in Baghdad as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis
A plane carrying Pope Francis flies the Iraqi and Vatican City flags from its cockpit as it lands in Baghdad on Friday
Security will be tight in Iraq, which has endured years of war and insurgency, is still hunting for Islamic State sleeper cells, and days ago saw a barrage of rockets plough into a military base.
Francis will preside over a half-dozen services in ravaged churches, refurbished stadiums and remote desert locations, where attendance will be limited to allow for social distancing.Â
Inside the country, he will travel more than 870 miles by plane and helicopter, flying over areas where security forces are still battling IS remnants.
For shorter trips, Francis will take an armoured car on freshly paved roads that will be lined with flowers and posters welcoming the leader known here as ‘Baba Al-Vatican’.
The pope’s visit has deeply touched Iraq’s Christians, whose numbers have collapsed over years of persecution and sectarian violence, from 1.5 million in 2003 to fewer than 400,000 today.
‘We’re hoping the pope will explain to the government that it needs to help its people,’ a Christian from Iraq’s north, Saad al-Rassam, told AFP. ‘We have suffered so much, we need the support.’Â
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi (right) meeting with Pope Francis at Baghdad Airport’s VIP Lounge
A grab from the official Iraqiya TV footage shows Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi welcoming Pope Francis
Pope Francis arrives at Baghdad International Airport where a welcoming ceremony is held to start his historic tour
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi welcomes Pope Francis at Baghdad International Airport
Pope Francis waves to the crowd upon his arrival in Baghdad, Iraq
A motorcade escorts Pope Francis during his historic tour in Baghdad
Motorcycle outriders, part of Francis’s security detail while he is in Iraq, accompany his car after he arrived in Baghdad
An armoured police truck drives past crowds waiting to see Pope Francis as he arrives in Baghdad on Friday
People stand by the road as they wait for Pope Francis to arrive in Baghdad, Iraq, during his historic first visit to the country
Pope Francis speaks to journalists aboard his airplane as he head from Rome to Iraq, telling journalists that he is ‘happy’ to be travelling again after a year being ‘caged’ at the Vatican
Francis also told reporters that he sees the trip as ‘a duty to a land that has been martyred for years’
The first day of the pope’s ambitious itinerary will see him meet government officials and clerics in the capital Baghdad, including at the Our Lady of Salvation church, where a jihadist attack left dozens dead in 2010.
He will also visit the northern province of Nineveh, where in 2014 IS jihadists forced minorities to either flee, convert to Islam or be put to death.
‘People had only a few minutes to decide if they wanted to leave or be decapitated,’ recalled Karam Qacha, a Chaldean Catholic priest in Nineveh.Â
Some 100,000 Christians – around half of those who lived in the province – fled, of whom just 36,000 have returned, according to Catholic charity ‘Aid to the Church in Need’.
Among the returnees, a third have said they want to leave again in coming years, dismayed by Iraq’s rampant corruption, persecution and poverty, which now affects 40 percent of the population.Â
The exodus is a loss for all of Iraq, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Oriental Churches and will accompany the pope to Iraq.
‘A Middle East without Christians is like trying to make bread with flour, but no yeast or salt,’ he said.
The visit aims not only to encourage Christians to stay in their homeland, but even prompt some emigres to return from nearby Lebanon and Jordan, or further afield like Canada and Australia.
Pope Francis boarded an Alitalia flight from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport on Friday bound for the Iraqi capital Baghdad – where he will complete a four-day tour
Francis vowed that the journey would go ahead despite concerns for his safety after a rocket attack on a US airbase on Wednesday killed one person
Early on Friday the Pope boarded a plane for his four-day journey to Iraq, his first abroad since the Covid-19 pandemic first took a hold last year
In his first foreign trip since the start of the pandemic Pope Francis will visit Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and the cities of Qaraqosh and Mosul, which were heavily destroyed by ISIS
A member of Rome’s police force in full dress uniform salutes Pope Francis as he climbs aboard the Alitalia flight to Baghdad at Leonardo da Vinci Airport on Friday
Pope Francis shook hands with Alitalia’s Special Commissioner Giuseppe Leogrande (pictured) when he arrived to board the plane to Baghdad at Rome’s Fiumicino international airport this morning
Security will be tight in Iraq, which has endured years of war and insurgency and is still hunting for Islamic State sleeper cells
Francis greets officials at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport on Friday as he boards a plane for his flight to Iraq
Pope Francis prepares to leave from Fiumicino’s International airport Leonardo da Vinci, near Rome, for Baghdad, Iraq
Pope Francis is seen through the plane window as he departs for his trip to Iraq from Leonardo Da Vinci airport
Francis will spend four days in Iraq, holding prayer services around the country and is due to return to Rome on Monday
Italian and Vatican City flags are seen on the front of the aircraft as it departs from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport
The four-day visit is designed to provide hope to Iraq’s Christians after years of persecution and increase the Vatican’s outreach to Islam
The Alitalia plane carrying Pope Francis takes off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport for his trip to Iraq
In a video address ahead of the trip, Francis evoked ‘the wounds of loved ones left behind and homes abandoned,’ saying there had been ‘too many martyrs’ in Iraq.
‘I come as a pilgrim, a penitent pilgrim to implore forgiveness and reconciliation from the Lord after years of war and terrorism.’Â
The pope has insisted on the visit despite resurging violence.
Rocket attacks across the country have left three people dead in recent weeks, including a US contractor who died Wednesday.
Francis’ determination to travel to areas long shunned by foreign dignitaries has impressed many in Iraq – as has his planned meeting with Sistani, 90, the top authority for Iraq’s Shiites.
A highly reclusive figure who rarely accepts visitors, Sistani will make an exception to host Francis at his humble home in the shrine city of Najaf on Saturday.
Banners all over Najaf have celebrated ‘the historic encounter, between the minarets and the church bells’.
Francis, a major supporter of inter-religious dialogue, will afterwards head to the desert site of Ur, where Abraham is thought to have been born.
There, he will host an interfaith service that will bring together not only the Abrahamic religions but also include followers of other beliefs, including Yazidis and Sabeans.
Banners with pictures of Pope Francis on them hang from lampposts in the Iraqi capital ahead of his arrival today
Security will be tight during Francis’s visit, with crowds largely absent from the streets and limits placed on prayer services
Security members of a special division stand guard at a street in Baghdad’s Karada district
An Iraqi security guard stands in front of a huge billboard bearing portraits of Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani who will meet on Saturday as part of the pontiff’s visit
Christian families gather outside St. George Chaldean Church, as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis, in Baghdad, Iraq
Iraqi Christians gather at the Church of the Virgin Mary before going to the airport to welcome Pope Francis in Baghdad, Iraq
Buses were put on in Iraq to take residents to the airport to await the Pope’s arrival today in Baghdad
A mural depicting Pope Francis was placed on a concrete wall by Iraqi security forces to surround the Our Lady of Salvation Church during preparations for the Pope’s visit
Iraq Christians have prepared posters welcoming Pope Francis to St. Joseph’s Chaldean Church
An Iraqi security member stands near a poster of Pope Francis ahead of his arrival, in Baghdad
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