Pope Francis Visited Mosul, A City Crushed and Destroyed by ISIS

Currents News Staff

Pope Francis arrived in Mosul, the city ISIS destroyed and occupied for three years. From the car he could see the ruins of the destroyed churches. He was greeted by olive branches and flower petals in the church square of Hosh al-Bieaa.

Amidst the ruins of the Syro-Catholic, Armenian-Orthodox, Syro-Orthodox and Chaldean churches, Pope Francis prayed for victims of ISIS.

Father Raid is one of those who witnessed the tragedy. He was the only Syro-Catholic priest who returned to rebuild his parish. He left in June of 2014 with 500 families from his parish. Most of them emigrated and are still afraid to return.

Today in Mosul there are no more than 70 Christian families left, compared to the two million Muslims with whom they coexist.

“Another beautiful example is the invitation to the celebration of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad in the mosque of Rashan,” Father Raid said. “This is the first time a priest is invited to this kind of ceremony in a mosque. In that same mosque ISIS read the document announcing the expulsion of Christians in 2014.”

The Holy Father lamented the forced displacement and murder of so many people, as well as the destruction of ancient worship sites, in the cradle of civilization.

“Fraternity is stronger than fratricide,” Pope Francis said. “Hope is more powerful than death. Peace is more powerful than war. This conviction speaks with greater eloquence than the passing voices of hatred and violence, and it can never be drowned by the blood spilled by those who pervert the name of God while pursuing paths of destruction.”

In the vicinity of the ruins of the Church of the Annunciation, Pope Francis inaugurated this memorial stone remembering the victims of the violence in Mosul.

Lastly, this white dove was released as a sign of peace and renewal. For many Iraqis, it represents that where once there was death, the pontiff brings life.

Pope Francis Visits Cathedral Destroyed by Al-Qaeda 10 Years Ago

Currents News Staff

Ten years after al-Qaeda’s attack on the Syro-Catholic church “Our Lady of Salvation,” Pope Francis visited this very place to meet with bishops, seminarians and men and women religious in Baghdad.

Pope Francis recalled the witness of faith of the 48 martyrs now in the process of beatification. He also remembered the nine Muslims who died in the attack.

“Their deaths are a powerful reminder that inciting war, hateful attitudes, violence or the shedding of blood are incompatible with authentic religious teachings,” Pope Francis said. “I also want to remember all the victims of violence and persecution, regardless of the religious group to which they belong. Hardships are part of the daily experience of the Iraqi faithful.”

He thanked the Church in Iraq for remaining close to the people.

“You and your fellow citizens have had to deal with the effects of war and persecution, the fragility of basic infrastructures and the ongoing struggle for economic and personal security that has frequently led to internal displacements and the migration of many people, including Christians, to other parts of the world,” he said.

The Holy Father used the image of a carpet to talk about the age-old historical, liturgical and spiritual patrimony of the different Churches present in Iraq. It’s a metaphor that “points also to its source, for God Himself is the artist.”

Pope Francis said that young people are the country’s hope for renewal and rebirth in the land of Abraham.

“Even though they are young, their patience has already been sorely tried by the conflicts of these years,” he said. “Yet let us never forget that, together with the elderly, they are the point of the diamond in this country, the richest fruit of the tree.”

At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis wore this stole made by the women of Qaraqosh. With it over his shoulders he prayed the “Our Father” with those present. They’re gestures of hope for persecuted Christians. Hope that “Iraq will not be the same nation” after the pontiff’s visit.

The Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako said Pope Francis’ visit has led to change.

“There’s been a big change already in the days leading up to the pope’s visit,” Cardinal Sako said. “Christians, Muslims, everyone talks about peace and harmonious coexistence. They also talk about the fight against fundamentalism and violence. It’s a very positive sign.”

That was the end of the Holy Father’s first day in Iraq as a pilgrim of peace.

Pope Francis to Persecuted Iraqi Christian Community: ‘Your Name is Written on God’s Heart’

Currents News Staff

Back in Baghdad, Pope Francis celebrated Mass using the Chaldean rite. The liturgy took place at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, with the small Christian community still in Iraq.

The building has a smaller capacity than the world’s great cathedrals. But there was an unmistakeable sense of tenderness, to which the pontiff contributed with his homily on the Beatitudes.

“Dear sister, dear brother, perhaps when you look at your hands, they seem empty,” Pope Francis said. “Perhaps you feel disheartened and unsatisfied by life. If so, do not be afraid: the Beatitudes are for you. For you who are afflicted, who hunger and thirst for justice, who are persecuted.”

In his sermon about the Beatitudes, Jesus places the poor, the afflicted and the forsaken at the center. That’s why the pontiff told Iraq’s Christians that God has not forgotten them.

“The Lord promises you that your name is written on His heart, written in heaven,” Pope Francis said. “Today I thank God with you and for you, because here, where wisdom arose in ancient times, so many witnesses have arisen in our own time, often overlooked by the news, yet precious in God’s eyes.”

The Holy Father communicated a message of hope to Christians who have suffered under the most brutal and bloody persecutions of the last years.

He said, “Jesus’ invitation is wise because love, which is the heart of the Beatitudes, even if it seems weak in the world’s eyes, in fact always triumphs. … That same love made the martyrs victorious in their trials—and how many martyrs have there been in the last century, more even than in the past!”

The liturgy followed the Chaldean rite, one of Christianity’s oldest, which has been enriched over the centuries. In it music plays a central role. This was the first Mass the pontiff celebrated with the region’s Christian community. The president of Iraq, though not a Christian, was present.

Iraqis on Pope’s Visit: ‘We Hope His Presence Will Silence Guns and Bring Peace’

Currents News Staff

Representatives of different religions who attended the interreligious meeting in Ur shared their impressions of the pontiff’s presence in their country.

“I was very very happy when I heard Pope Francis was coming to my city,” one man said. “His visit to my city sends a message about the war. And this for us is peace. He invited all to come pray, to come live to come work.”

“This visit is not only related to religious matters, but it is political also,” one woman said. “So we hope that the pope and his power will silence guns and begin a new time of peace in Iraq.”

“I have a message for him: to bring to Iraq freedom for all our religions, and peace,” another attendee said who attended the inter religious dialogue meeting. “Because my tribe and all our people are between the border of Kurdistan and Iraq. The violence is very very bad, from Daesh and other terrorist groups.”

“My friends, they are Muslims, they are Christians, and we are not different from each other,” another woman said who also attended. “So we hope the visit of the Papa will stick us together and give us more strength and more peace for Iraq and for the whole world.”

There’s an overwhelming sense of hope and optimism that Pope Francis’ pilgrimage of fraternity and peace will be another step toward the coexistence and friendship they have envisioned for so many years.

Pope Francis Meets With Top Islamic Leader Ali al-Sistani

Currents News Staff

Pope Francis traveled to the holy city of Najaf, the third most important city for Shia Muslims. It houses the tomb of Muhammad’s son-in-law, making it an important pilgrimage site for Muslims.

Pope Francis was welcomed by authorities and children who gave him white and yellow roses, the colors of the Vatican flag. In another part of the city, white doves were released as a sign of peace.

After a drive through the narrow streets of Najaf, the pope reached the residence of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leader of the Iraqi Shia community, which makes up more than 60 percent of the population. Al-Sistani is a key figure of Shi’ism, one of the two main branches of Islam.

The 45-minute meeting was held in the religious leader’s modest home, where he welcomes people from all walks of life. Pope Francis highlighted the importance of fostering friendship between religions and cultivating respect and dialogue to positively contribute to the good of Iraq, the region and all humanity.

The pontiff thanked the Grand Ayatollah and all Shia Muslims who have raised their voices to defend the weakest and those who have faced persecution during the last years.

In 2014 Ali al-Sistani condemned ISIS. His action contributed to the fall of the self-proclaimed Islamic State and proved the weight of his moral influence in the Islamic world, showing that there is a foundation to initiate a dialogue.

Pope Francis in Land of Abraham: ‘Violence is Betrayal of Religion’

Currents News Staff

This song from the book of Genesis marked the start of the interreligious meeting in Ur of the Chaldeans, where the patriarch Abraham, father of the three monotheistic religions, makes his first appearance in the bible. Then this part of the Quran was intoned.

Ur is considered the common place of origin of Christians, Jews and Muslims. That’s why the pope chose this place for an interreligious meeting. During the event, these two young men shared their testimony, showing that being from different religions doesn’t make friendship impossible.

“Our story shows that we can work together and that we can be friends,” Hasan said.

“We would like many other Iraqi people to make the same experience,” said Dawood. “We don’t want war and violence and hatred.”

In the middle of the war, Rafah, a Mandaean woman, witnessed her children, brothers and relatives fleeing. But she says the tragedy strengthened the bonds between those who stayed.

“Together we subsist through the war’s ruins on the same soil,” said Rafah Husein Baher. “Our blood was mixed. Together we tasted the bitterness of the embargo. We have the same identity.”

From the land of Abraham, source of faith, the Holy Father said that “God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters.”

“Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: they are betrayals of religion,” the pontiff said. “We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion; indeed, we are called unambiguously to dispel all misunderstandings.”

To conclude the meeting, representatives of the three monotheistic religions joined together for the Prayer of the Sons and Daughters of Abraham.

Pope Francis’ ‘Emblematic’ Trip to Iraq Is ‘Welcoming, Joyful’

Currents News Staff and Inés San Martín

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Crux) — On his flight Friday to Baghdad for a March 5-8 historic visit to Iraq, Pope Francis told journalists that this is an “emblematic” trip and that is also a “duty” to visit this “land martyred for so many years.”

His comments came as he greeted the 74 journalists from 13 nations flying with him from Rome to Baghdad, before proceeding to thank each reporter individually, while wearing a facemask and keeping a social distance due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Both the pope and all those traveling with him on the Alitalia flight were inoculated against the coronavirus ahead of the apostolic visit, the first in 15 months.

Though he didn’t answer questions from reporters — he never does during an inbound flight, though he sometimes makes some comments to journalists — he did receive several gifts, most of which were related to the visit, including the documents compiled for the martyrdom cause of the 48 men, women and children murdered Oct. 31, 2010, by five terrorists in the Syro-Catholic cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation.

The pope is expected to visit this cathedral later on Friday, to meet with bishops, priests, religious, seminarians, and catechists.

He also received several documents detailing ISIS atrocities, including the prize they put on human beings when selling them as slaves.

Pope Francis arrived in Iraq, where he will visit six cities in three days, amidst security concerns in a country ravaged by years of war, the constant threat of terrorism, and during a global pandemic that forced him to cancel or heavily restrict the attendance to most of his public engagements in the past year.

In July 2019, Iraqi President Barham Salih invited the pope, hoping that a papal visit would help the country heal after decades of conflict, beginning with the U.S. led invasion in 2003, followed by the rise of jihadist extremist, including Islamic State (ISIS), that perpetrated genocide against the country’s minorities, including Christians and Yazidis, between 2014 and 2017.

Today, Iraq is grappling with political, economic, and social instability, and throughout the country, anti-government protesters rallied most of the week leading up to the papal visit.

Despite the challenges, local media speaks of a society happy to welcome the pope, even if government-mandated restrictions mean the opportunities to see him live, even if just passing by in the popemobile, are close to zero. During the visit, Pope Francis is expected to move in a closed vehicle, probably armored, with the exception of when he is inside a 40,000-seat stadium where he will say Mass for 10,000 local faithful.

However, the pontiff decided to go ahead with the visit because he believed the Iraqis wills still appreciate him being there, even if they can only see he’s visiting historic places such as the plain of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, through their TVs.

The pontiff has a busy schedule ahead: on Friday he’s meeting civil authorities at the presidential and the local religious community in the Syro-Catholic cathedral where 48 Catholics were martyred during Mass in 2010.

On Saturday he’s going to Najaf, a holy city for Shite Islam, where he will meet Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Later that morning, he will lead an interreligious prayer in the ruins of the City of Ur, considered the birthplace of Abraham, father of believers. Lastly, on Saturday, he will become the first pope to celebrate Mass in the Chaldean Catholic rite.

On Sunday, the last full day of his visit, he will focus his attention almost exclusively on the embattled Christian community, visiting the Nineveh Plain, including the cities of Qaraqosh and Mosul — both decimated by ISIS — and celebrate Mass for 10,000 people in a stadium in Erbil, capital of the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan.

He flies back to Rome in the early morning.

High Expectations

Archbishop Amel Nona, Chaldean Catholic bishop of Australia and New Zealand and former Archbishop of Mosul until 2014 when he was forced to flee due to the threats of ISIS, said that the papal visit to Iraq is a very important one for the local Christian community, that has “long felt abandoned by everyone.”

“Their future is not very clear,” he told Crux ahead of the visit. “The reason is because of the situation of Iraq in general, but the pope’s visit represents a support and message of hope for their presence in Mesopotamia.”

Christians, he added, have suffered a lot in this country, particularly in the past decades, hence their need for some words of support.

Nona also said that the visit is very important for the country as a whole, “as we know that the situation is very bad from many points of view: politically, economically, corruption-wise and social justice.”

“We hope Pope Francis’ visit can change a bit the hearts of leaders and those in power to change this situation,” he said.

Even though the pope himself said he’s going to Iraq as a “penitential pilgrim,” asking God’s forgiveness for years of war, persecution, and destruction, and as a “pilgrim of peace,” hoping to remind people that they are all siblings, the trip is politically loaded too.

Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, a former papal representative in Iraq during the 2003 invasion — strongly condemned by then Pope John Paul II — played a key role in stopping the military incursion. He even attempted to mediate between the U.S. and Great Britain and Saddam Hussein.

“The entire Iraqi community suffered” with the bombardments, Cardinal Filoni said in a pre-trip interview. He is one of the prelates flying with the pope. Back in 2003, he was the only Western ambassador to remain in Iraq.

Churches and the seminary remained open during the worst of the bombardment, he said, ready to welcome those who needed refuge.

“We knew that it was a war founded in lies,” he told the Italian newspaper Il Messagero. “Everything the [Hussein] regime was accused of did not exist,” including chemical weapons and those of mass destruction.

The Holy See, he said, matured the decision to try to convince both sides — he mentions U.S. and Hussein — to reach an agreement to avoid the worst. The Iraqi leader was ready to negotiate, with his one request, according to Filoni, being that he was not humiliated: “He too, was ready for a change,” the cardinal said.

Cardinal Filoni also said that for John Paul II the war in Iraq “was an enormous suffering,” and he encouraged the nunciature to hand out aid to anyone who asked, without discriminating. Cardinal Filoni was in Iraq from 2001 to 2006.

Cardinal Filoni, who recently released a book on the Catholic Church in Iraq, defined the papal trip as a “dream come true,” and one that has long been a hoped destination for popes, including John Paul II, who had every intention of going in 1999. But according to the cardinal, that trip was not possible due to Shiite militias that made it impossible for the local government to guarantee the pope’s safety.

Though Pope Francis is not expected to single out the U.S. during the visit, it is possible that he addressed the international community’s responsibility in Iraq’s ongoing crisis and instability, particularly because the pope and the cardinal were sat close to one another during the 4.3-hour flight from Rome to Baghdad.

Catholic News Headlines for Friday, 3/5/21

On a special edition of Currents News: Pope in Iraq. The Holy Father in the land of Abraham, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. A first for any pontiff.

He’s on a mission to bring hope and peace to a dwindling Christian population – appealing to Muslims for brotherhood.

Catholic News Headlines for Friday, 3/5/21

On a special edition of Currents News: Pope in Iraq. The Holy Father in the land of Abraham, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. A first for any pontiff.

He’s on a mission to bring hope and peace to a dwindling Christian population – appealing to Muslims for brotherhood.

Pope Francis Visits Cathedral Where Catholics Were Martyred on Day One of Historic Iraq Trip

By Emily Drooby

A historic moment as the Holy Father descended the stairs of the papal plane and became the first pope to ever set foot in Iraq.

“I am happy to resume my trips,” Pope Francis said while on a plane full of reporters, “and this is an emblematic trip, a duty to this land so martyred for so many years.”

The pope risked both his physical safety and his health, committed to offering hope to the country’s dwindling Christian community plagued by years of war and persecution.

Pope Francis was greeted by dancing, music and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

The crowds that usually line the streets for a chance to catch a glimpse at the Holy Father were missing due to a pandemic safety measure put into place to avoid spreading COVID-19.

On his busy first day, Pope Francis visited with Iraq President, Barham Salih at the presidential palace. Salih is who initially invited the Holy Father to Iraq back in 2019.

While at the palace, Pope Francis gave his first speech of the trip. In it, he laid out a path to peace which included international support with vaccine distributions; eliminating the idea of second-class citizens; and asking Iraq to be an example for the rest of the Middle East that coexistence is possible.

“Iraq today is called to show everyone, especially in the Middle East, that diversity, instead of giving rise to conflict, should lead to harmonious cooperation in the life of society,” said Pope Francis. (This is a translation).

Pope Francis completed his first day at the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad which is the site of one of the worst massacres against Christians. The 2010 attack was by terrorists from the Islamic State that happened during evening Mass. Fifty-eight people were killed – 48 of them were Catholic people composed of women, children and priests.

Translated to English, Pope Francis said, “We are gathered in this Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, hallowed by the blood of our brothers and sisters who here paid the ultimate price of their fidelity to the Lord and his Church.”

The Holy Father called their deaths a reminder that violence isn’t compatible with authentic religious teaching. The cause for canonization is underway for the 48 Catholics martyred in the attack.