Pope Francis, the chief of the Roman Catholic church, visited Iraq in a historic visit last week. In a meeting oozing symbolism, the pope met Ayatollah Sistani, the religious leader of Iraqi Shias. He also visited the ancient city of Ur, which is the birthplace of Prophet Abraham, the patriarch of monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. On the last day of his three-day sojourn, he addressed a congregation at a church in Mosul, a city that served as ISIS’s capital in Iraq. “How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow,” the Pope said, “with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people—Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, and others—forcibly displaced or killed.”