Pope Francis is celebrating a historic mass in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil, the largest liturgy of his three day trip to Iraq.
The Catholic leader arrived at Franso Hariri stadium to a 10,000-strong crowd. Overjoyed followers swarmed the popemobile to receive blessings from the Catholic leader.
When arriving on stage, Pope Francis incensed the altar and a statue of Virgin Mary that was decapitated and its hands cut off by the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Christian town of Karamlesh during the group’s reign in the Nineveh Plains from 2014 to 2017. The pope introduced the mass with a liturgical greeting, followed by other speakers.
“Here in Iraq, how many of your brothers and sisters, friends, and fellow citizens bear the wounds of war and violence. Wounds both visible and invisible,” said the leader, who is on his second day of his apostolic trip to Iraq. “The temptation is to react to these and other painful experiences with human power, with human wisdom, instead, Jesus shows us the way of God, the path that he took, the path on which he calls us to follow him.”
“To cleanse our hearts, we need to dirty our hands, to feel accountable and not to simply look on as our brothers and sisters are suffering,” added Pope Francis at the event where many worry of the spread of coronavirus, despite the football stadium only being filled to partial capacity.
The mass is being celebrated at Franso Hariri Stadium, named after Erbil's first Christian governor, who was assassinated in a terrorist attack on February 18, 2001. After his death, the Kurdistan Regional Government renamed the Erbil football stadium to commemorate his life.
Following his arrival in the Kurdistan Region earlier in the day, Pope Francis ventured to the town of Qaraqosh in the Christian heartland of the Nineveh Plains and Iraq’s second largest city Mosul.
“Even amid great poverty and difficulty, many of you have generously offered concrete help and solidarity to the poor and suffering. That is one of the reasons that made me come as a pilgrim in your midst, to thank you and to confirm you and your faith in witness,” added Pope Francis during the Erbil mass, where he extended a “heartfelt greeting to the beloved Kurdish people.”
Archbishop of Erbil Bashar Warda thanked the Pope for his journey to Iraq on behalf of the crowd gathered at the stadium.
“We thank you for your courage, that you would come here to our troubled land, a land so filled with violence, a place of endless disputes, displacement and suffering among the people. And that you would do this in this time of global pandemic and crisis makes real to us now the words of Christ ‘do not be afraid’,” said Warda at the mass.“We give you our thanks for your prayers for the persecuted and the marginalized here in Iraq and around the world.”
Pope Francis ended the mass with a specific message for Iraq, which he says will always remain in his heart. “Salam, Salam, Salam,” said the Catholic leader, using the Arabic word for peace.
Updated at 18:25
