Pope Francis yesterday prayed for “victims of war” in northern Iraq, where the Islamic State group ravaged one of the world’s oldest Christian communities until the militants’ defeat three years ago.
With the partially collapsed walls of Mosul’s centuries-old Al-Tahera (Immaculate Conception) Church behind him, Francis pleaded for Christians in Iraq and the Middle East to stay in their homelands.
The 84-year-old pontiff said the “tragic” exodus of Christians from Iraq and the wider region “does incalculable harm not just to the individuals and communities concerned, but also to the society they leave behind.”
Photo: AFP
The Islamic State onslaught forced hundreds of thousands of Christians in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province to flee. The country’s Christian population has shrunk to fewer than 400,000 from about 1.5 million before the US-led invasion of 2003.
The faithful yesterday gathered in the courtyard of the church, whose roof collapsed during fighting against the Islamic State in 2017. It is one of the oldest of at least 14 churches in Nineveh that were destroyed by the militants.
The heaviest deployment of security personnel yet was mobilized to protect Francis in northern Iraq on what was perhaps the riskiest day of his historic trip to a country where state forces are still hunting Islamic State sleeper cells.
Photo: AFP
However, he appeared not to be fazed, as he was driven around Mosul’s historic Old City in a golf cart.
The visit to the north embodies a cause close to Francis’ heart: Iraq’s traumatized Christian community.
Watching from afar as Islamic State swept across Nineveh in 2014, the pope said at the time that he was ready to come and meet the displaced and other victims of war.
He finally fulfilled his promise yesterday, holding a prayer service in Qaraqosh, whose ancient church — named Al-Tahera, like the one in Mosul — was torched by the militants, who largely also destroyed the town itself.
Residents of Qaraqosh have since rebuilt their homes and Al-Tahera has also been refurbished, its imposing marble floors and internal colonnades buffed to host its most important guest yet.
Dressed in traditional embroidered robes, hundreds of the faithful — who speak a modern dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ — welcomed the pontiff with hymns and olive branches.
“Do not stop dreaming! Do not give up! Do not lose hope!” Francis urged those gathered. “Now is the time to rebuild and to start afresh,” he said.
The biggest event of the pope’s tour was scheduled for yesterday afternoon, when several thousand people were to gather at Erbil’s Franso Hariri Football Stadium for the pope’s last Mass in Iraq.
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