Janine di Giovanni made a tour of the shrinking Christian communities of the Middle East. In this extract from her new book, she charts the arrival of the Islamic State in Iraq in 2014
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This is why Pope Francis’s determination to visit Iraq “as an act of love”, to give moral support to vulnerable Iraqi minorities, is so crucial.
The 84-year-old pontiff, who has been vaccinated, has arrived at a perilous time: amid a resurgence of Covid-19 and multiple rocket attacks on Iraqi bases and institutions. It is the Pope’s first trip abroad since the pandemic began. The fact he chose Iraq, and to focus on the Christians, is not inconsequential. They are in grave danger.
Iraqi Christians are considered the oldest continuous Christian community on Earth with roots going back 2,000 years. Yet this millennia-old connection is looking increasingly tenuous. Christians are an integral part of the mosaic that is Iraq, but their numbers are dwindling.
Waiting for a miracle in Iraq
February 26, 2021 Share
Only two days after an extremist attack that saw 14 missiles rain down on Erbil, and in the midst of a new coronavirus surge and lockdown, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Najeeb Michaeel, was optimistic about the upcoming visit of Pope Francis.
“Everyone is very happy about this historic event,” he said of Iraq’s inaugural papal visit, from his home in Ankawa, Erbil’s Christian enclave, which has given refuge to thousands of those displaced by ISIS. A previously planned visit in 2000 by Pope John Paul II to Ur, birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic patriarch who has become a symbol of inter-faith harmony, was foiled by protracted negotiations with the government of Saddam Hussein. In 2020, Pope Francis had to cancel a trip due to security and pandemic concerns.