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.
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.
Pope Francis has left Italy for the first time since the pandemic started. The 84-year-old Pope flew with his entourage, a security detail, and about 75 journalists. All of them vaccinated.
By Jessica Easthope
Their last moments together as a family are precious. Kisha Pinnock, her husband Andrew Mitchell and brother Isaiah were in Texas for eight days giving up their time and money to help after the storm.
“At any moment the tables could have turned and it could have been me in New Jersey who needed help,” said Kisha.
Now after a quick two days back home in New Jersey, they’re headed down to Texas again, this time for two weeks and without Kisha and Andrew’s two-year-old son, Blake.
“We’re going back with a plan with a mission with goals that we need to set and with a strategic vision so that we can get this Texas problem taken care of,” said Andrew.
Kisha, Andrew and Isaiah saw firsthand the damage done by a surge of winter weather that pummeled the state with snow and ice, leaving people in desperation.
“Some people have to repair their ceiling so people have to repair the floors have to rip up the carpet and throw out their entire furniture in the living room,” Kisha said.
Andrew got his plumber’s license days before the storm hit. With pipe’s bursting, homes flooding and freezing, he saw the call for help on Facebook and in a moment’s notice they packed and drove down to Texas without stopping. In less than 24 hours they were ready to work.
They took every and any job they could, charging people only what they could afford – even when the task at hand seemed impossible.
“We were in crawlspaces where people were insulating their pipes with newspaper we seen some plumbing that was so poorly done that the people actually had waste from the toilet and stuff like that just dump underneath their house,” Isaiah said.
Building a community in need back up was always the goal.
“The one cornerstone thing I know about faith is that it’s all love, and to just be able to extend love and compassion to people it’s just what gets me going,” said Isaiah.
Now Kisha, an attorney and St. John’s graduate, Isaiah a Seton Hall student and Andrew a fully licensed plumber are starting the Pinnock-Mitchell Texas Relief Foundation.
“Sometimes God uses you to bless other people and I definitely think that He is using us,” said Kisha.
They already have their work cut out for them, and they won’t stop until everyone in need is taken care of.
We are one day away from the Pope’s trip to Iraq.
The Holy Father is sending Iraqis a message ahead of the journey – he wants to bring hope and peace to the country.
The cardinal in Iraq says the country has already changed after just hearing about the papal trip.
By Currents News Staff and Inés San Martín
ROME (Crux) – Pope Francis is set to become the first pontiff to set a foot in Iraq on March 5, when he lands in Baghdad after a four-hour trip from Rome.
Between the threat of terrorism and the global COVID-19 pandemic, many have wondered why not postpone the trip.
“I don’t hide from you the fact that I have concerns for the pope’s visit,” said historian-turned-war blogger Omar Mohammed, who wrote daily dispatches from Mosul while his city was occupied by ISIS. “I am worried that the pro-Iranian militias will use the visit, as well as the pope’s meeting with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as an excuse to justify their crimes in Iraq.”
The man behind “Mosul Eye,” a blog that he is still running, risked his life on a daily basis to let the world know what was happening, and he says he would do it all again.
“I believe I didn’t risk enough, even when I am still at risk,” he told Crux from an undisclosed European location. “But there are more than 18 million people under the age of 25 in Iraq, and they deserve every sacrifice. Jesus died when he was very young because he believed in sacrificing himself so humanity could survive. I agree with this.”
Mohammed is not a Christian, yet by his own admission, “I love the pope, I watch him every day, and as I speak with you about him, I am about to cry … He’s going to my city, a city that I cannot go back to. And his words are a balm to my heart: Love, by its nature, creative. (cries) That is the message that we want, that our deeply wounded hearts and souls need.”
[Related: Analysis: In Iraq, Pope Can Deepen Ties With Church’s Natural Islamic Partners]
According to Sangar Kahleel, an Erbil-based Kurd born in Mosul who works as a fixer for international news outlets, it is true that there are many risks ahead of the visit.
“But we as Iraqis really appreciate this historical visit from the pope,” he told Crux. “I think he is coming to plant the seed of peace in this country which really deserves it. We also hope that Christians will find strength and stability after the visit, because the number of Christians living here goes down every month.”
Kahleel said Iraqis have high expectations for the papal trip.
“We hope that with the pope’s visit, peace will be built between all people in Iraq, so we go back to the amazing days when all of us lived together, loving one another and making no differentiations among peoples,” he said.
Alberto Miguel Fernandez, a Cuban-American former diplomat who now serves as the vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, said Iraq is a country in a “deeply extreme crisis, in every sense of the word: Politically, economically, socially. But this has been the case for years. I believe it is logical and incredibly good that the Holy Father is going, in this moment. It is a trip that requires a lot of courage and solidarity.”
On the COVID threat, he noted that as recent as in early February, Iraq was welcoming the head of the judicial branch of Iran, who is a cleric, and who held several large religious meetings with “massive attendance.”
Coronavirus is a reality in Iraq, “a great disaster, but I read Arabic and there is great interest, not only from Christians, but also from Muslims, in the pope’s visit. I find it strange that foreigners are complaining about COVID in Iraq when the locals are so excited.”
Much like Mohammed and Kahleel, the diplomat has many reasons to defend the timing for the trip, including the future of Christianity in Iraq.
“The reality is that the Christian community in Iraq is a crisis right now,” Fernandez said. “[The pope’s] presence today in support of this community that is very battered for various reasons, not only the terrorism of the so-called Islamic State, but the militias, these mafias, religious parties linked to Iran that really affect the survival of Christians, is really encouraging.”
“It is, I believe, a very opportune moment for his visit,” he said. “In political terms, it is more urgent and timelier today than it will be in six months or a year from now. Because then the question becomes, can the Christian community survive that long” without the pope’s encouragement?
The problem Christians face in Iraq is linked to two things: The security situation and the economic survival of these communities. Today, they have no security whatsoever: When he goes to Qaraqosh, Pope Francis will visit the largest church in Iraq in a region – the Nineveh Plain – historically linked to Christianity. Yet today, there are pro-Iranian Shiite militias marauding the plain every day.
“What the Islamic State did before is what these militias are doing today,” Fernandez told Crux. “They are death squads, and not only against Christians, but also against Muslims.”
The Holy Father will also visit Ur, which is near Nasiriyah, a city in the south of the country where these militias and security forces are assassinating young Shiite Muslims who have been protesting against the government.
These protests have also been replicated in Baghdad, the country’s capital, and pictures show thousands gathered over the weekend defying a COVID-19 lockdown to demonstrate against government corruption and economic stagnation.
But beyond giving hope to the embattled Christian community, Fernandez said, the pontiff can also bring hope to the majority of Muslims who support living together with people of other faiths.
“You will find a public very interested in that message that says yes, I am here for the Christians of Iraq, but I express my solidarity with all Iraqis, of all ethnic and religious groups who suffer because they are poor, marginalized, those being oppressed,” he said.
Dominican Father Olivier Poquillon noted “there is some instability and some weaknesses in the system, but the security situation is not worse than it has been in the past.”
In the Middle East, he told Crux, when one wants to honor a person, you don’t invite them over for a visit, like the president of the United States does when he invites someone to the White House: There, you go and visit that person.
“And if a member of your family is suffering, it is a social duty to visit that person,” the Dominican explained. “And by visiting Iraq, a suffering member of the human family, the pope is giving testimony of the mercy of God for humanity.”
Currents News Staff
In a stadium in Erbil, Iraq, rehearsals are underway for Pope Francis’ upcoming visit.
Christianity’s roots run deep there, but the population is dwindling.
As ISIS mortar killed four-year-old David Shmas in 2014 outside his home in Qaraqosh.
His mother, Dhoha, sees no point in staying.
“If someone will take us away, I’ll be the first one to emigrate,” she told Currents News.
Over the last century, revolutions, chaos, oppression and intolerance have driven many Christians abroad.
In the last 20 years however, it’s gone from bad to worse, culminating in ISIS’s reign of terror.
The group gave Christians a choice: pay a tax on non-Muslims, convert, flee or die.
Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil Bashar Warda says the Muslim majority in the Middle East remains indifferent to the plight of minorities, and says Iraq’s diversity is fast disappearing.
“What frightens me is that during this period no one has asked what we, for example, have lost, when we have a declining number of the Mandaeans, and now Yezidis, Christians,” he explained.
Twenty-one years ago, Sabah Zaitoun moved to Sweden, but is back in Erbil for a visit. Those who have left, he says, have left for good.
“I don’t think anyone will return from Europe,” Sabah said. “That would be difficult.”
This will be the first time a pope has stepped foot in this land where Christians and so many others have suffered so much, for so long. Their voices, they hope, finally being heard.
Currents News Staff and Cindy Wooden
BAGHDAD (CNS) — To consolidate peace and ensure progress, the government and people of Iraq must never treat anyone as a second-class citizen and must work each day to promote harmony, Pope Francis said.
“Fraternal coexistence calls for patient and honest dialogue, protected by justice and by respect for law,” he said March 5, addressing Iraqi President Barham Salih, other government leaders and diplomats serving in Iraq.
The appointment with civic and cultural leaders at the presidential palace in Baghdad came shortly after the Holy Father landed in Iraq for his first foreign trip in 15 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although he, his entire entourage and the journalists traveling with him had all been vaccinated against the coronavirus, they all wore masks during the four-hour flight from Rome.
Lowering his mask briefly to address reporters, he said he felt a “duty” to visit the Middle Eastern country, which had experienced so much death and turmoil since the 2003 invasion by a U.S.-led coalition. He put his mask back on to make his way around the plane and personally greet each member of the media.
The pontiff held a brief meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in a lounge at the Baghdad airport before heading into the city under tight security.
Outside the airport, in five or six large groups along the highway, hundreds of Iraqis waved Vatican or Iraqi flags as the pope passed. Forced to use a bullet-proof car, the pope rode to the presidential palace in a black BMW 750i; the sedan was flanked most of the way by security officials on motorcycles, but as the motorcade neared the palace, it was accompanied by officers on horseback.
The president welcomed Pope Francis as a “great and dear guest,” expressing his gratitude that the pontiff made the trip “despite recommendations to postpone the visit because of the exceptional circumstances the world is going through because of the pandemic and despite the difficult conditions that our wounded nation is going through” with sporadic waves of violence.
Facing those dangers and visiting anyway “in reality doubles the value of your visit in the eyes of Iraqis,” the president told the Holy Father.
His first speech of the trip, the pope outlined the themes expected to resonate throughout the March 5-8 visit: paying homage to the Christians martyred by Islamic militants over the past 20 years; insisting belief in one God, the father of all, means all people are brothers and sisters; encouraging a continued commitment to rebuilding the physical and social fabric of the country, including with international aid; and condemning all recourse to violence.
Repeating a phrase he used in a video message to the Iraqi people on the eve of his visit, Pope Francis told the civic authorities, “I come as a penitent, asking forgiveness of heaven and my brothers and sisters for so much destruction and cruelty. I come as a pilgrim of peace in the name of Christ, the prince of peace.”
“May the clash of arms be silenced! May their spread be curbed, here and everywhere,” the pontiff said. “May the voice of builders and peacemakers find a hearing! The voice of the humble, the poor, the ordinary men and women who want to live, work and pray in peace.”
“May there be an end to acts of violence and extremism, factions and intolerance,” Pope Francis urged. “May room be made for all those citizens who seek to cooperate in building up this country through dialogue and through frank, sincere and constructive discussion — citizens committed to reconciliation and prepared, for the common good, to set aside their own interests.”
Pope Francis acknowledge how Iraqis have dedicated themselves to the difficult task of building a democracy. For further progress toward that goal, he said, “it is essential to ensure the participation of all political, social and religious groups and to guarantee the fundamental rights of all citizens.”
In fact, the country’s dwindling Christian minority is not the only group that repeatedly has been denied its basic rights; Kurds, Yazidis and Mandaeans all have faced discrimination and even persecution. Under Saddam Hussein, even the Shiite Muslim majority was marginalized in many ways.
Even though he was speaking to secular leaders, Pope Francis could not fail to mention the special suffering of the Christian community, advocate for their rights and promise that they, too, would use their talents and skills to build up the nation.
Condemning violence “grounded in a fundamentalism incapable of accepting the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups,” the pope urged Iraqis to strive to be a model of dialogue and harmony for the rest of the region.
Salih told the Holy Father that, too often in the modern world, “opposition and polarization” are the order of the day, and people, “especially in the East, are losing the habit of pluralism, diversity and accepting the opinion of the other.”
Such an attitude, he said, “increases terrorism and the incitement to violence, hatred and committing atrocities with pretexts that have nothing to do with the tolerant spirit of the divine message. This threatens our entire future.”
Pope Francis agreed.
“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.
Religion, he insisted, “must be at the service of peace and fraternity.”
By Emily Drooby
Brandon Park is a talented student, and he has the award to prove it. It all started with a test.
“And a little while after, my mom told me I got the highest honor,” Brandon told Currents News.
That highest honor, called “grand honors,” was given by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth during this year’s talent search.
But the award was not a shock for his teachers at St. Andrew Avellino Catholic Academy in Flushing, Queens.
Brandon was up against 15,000 students from seven grades across the country, Puerto Rico and more. He earned the award by scoring in the top nine percent of students. He won a medal, bragging rights and access to a special program.
“With the award came entrance to John Hopkins summer school,” he explained. “I think it’ll really help me.”
The sixth grader and his mom both credit his time at St. Andrew Avellino for the win.
“The teachers take time to get to know us, and they take time to make sure we really understand the subject,” said Brandon.
But Kevin Monahan, his teacher, credits Brandon.
“Of course I give plenty of credit to the teachers and staff at St. Andrew Avellino, but I gotta give Brandon the bulk of the credit for this one,” Kevin said. “He’s a very driven student, so I’m sure that anything he takes on outside of the classroom he’s able to succeed in.”
“Of course I give plenty of credit to the teachers and staff at St. Andrew Avellino, but I gotta give Brandon the bulk of the credit for this one,” he said. “He’s a very driven student, so I’m sure that anything he takes on outside of the classroom he’s able to succeed in.”
The school is a very close-knit community. Their principal Debora Hanna says it’s been amazing to watch Brandon turn into the child he is today.
“To watch a child come from a public school, very quiet and meek and grow into a young man, and then be given an award, it’s pretty cool,” she said.
Brandon says he dreams of one day attending a well-known college, and says something great with his life. It looks like he’s right on track.
By Emily Drooby
Last March, Elmhurst Hospital faced “apocalyptic” conditions. They were overwhelmed by COVID patients pouring in – stretchers filled the hallways as fear – and the virus – filled the air.
Some days – more people died than they had room for in the morgue.
A year later, a new leader has been tapped to help the hospital learn from its past and grow: a local Catholic woman, Helen Arteaga Landaverde.
She has first-hand experience – she was a COVID patient there.
“I feel like God had a plan,” Helen said. “God was like, ‘You’re going to go through these dark days Helen, but at the end it’s going to help you in such a way that you’re going to take this hospital and community to a new future.’”
Now, she’s got plans for the hospital, requesting $30 million for upgrades and repairs.
“I have so many dreams for this hospital,” she told Currents News. “One of them is to improve our technology, improve our equipment, get more providers to come here.
Helen tells Currents News as she starts to work on these big changes, she will be relying heavily on her faith.
“Every step where I have felt, ‘Oh I can’t take a step more, my faith has come in and said, ‘Yes you can.’”
She’s a long-time parishioner of Our Lady of Sorrows in Corona, Queens, and went to their Catholic academy.
The church’s pastor, Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, describes Helen as a pillar of the church and the community.
“Faith has always been a defining value in both her family and her story,” he explained.
Recently, they congratulated and thanked her publicly.
Helen’s drive to help others came from tragedy – the loss of her father in 1998.
“And I would hear his voice, over and over again, ‘Helen you can’t fix the world, but you can fix this one block,’” she recalled.
Sp, she opened Plaza del Sol, a community health care center that helps everyone – whether they can afford it or not.
“That clinic is an angel, a life-saving angel here in Corona,” said Fr. Manuel.
Now Helen’s ready for her next step – continuing to make her father proud and help others.
“Plaza del Sol helped me fix that block, and Elmhurst Hospital is my next block.”
Helen says she’s excited to continue to fight to make sure everyone – no matter their race, their immigration status, or their net worth – has good healthcare.