Distinguished Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am grateful for the opportunity to make this long-awaited and desired Visit to the Republic of Iraq, and to come to this land, a cradle of civilization closely linked through the Patriarch Abraham and a number of the Prophets to the history of salvation and to the great religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I express my gratitude to His Excellency President Salih for his invitation and for his gracious words of welcome, offered also in the name of the other authorities of the nation and its beloved people. I likewise greet the members of the diplomatic corps and the representatives of civil society.
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the risks of
travelling to Iraq during the Covid-19 pandemic, but
he decided to go ahead with it after much prayer and belief that God would look after the Iraqis who came out to see him.
Pope Francis, who flew back to Rome on Monday, explained why he chose to make the
four-day visit, which featured often maskless crowds in packed churches
. and that the pandemic was the issue that weighed most heavily on him. Pope Francis gestures as he boards a plane to depart for Rome, at Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad. Reuters Cardinals and ranking Catholic clergymen board the Alitalia Airbus A330 aircraft as Pope Francis bids farewell to other bishops and Iraq s President Barham Saleh and his wife Sarbagh before departing from the Iraqi capital s Baghdad International. AFP
Pope Francis receives flowers from children during a welcoming ceremony with Iraqi President Barham Salih at the presidential palace in Baghdad on March 5, 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Francis, now the first pope to set foot in Iraq, hopes to bring consolation, healing and peace to a people devastated by war. A meeting between the minarets and the bell-towers is how the trip is spoken of by journalists and on social media. That image is a helpful one to keep in mind when thinking about the history between Islam and Catholicism. While churches and mosques have been built for centuries in close proximity to each other, the relationship between those who worship God inside these sacred houses of prayer has not always been as close.