Pope Francis departs Rome for Baghdad this morning. In the Iraqi capital he will be welcomed by President Barham Salih and meet with political leaders and diplomats. He will visit Baghdad’s Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation to meet with Christian leaders.
On Saturday, the pope will travel to Najaf where he will meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and visit the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, a patriarch of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths.
Pope Francis will end the day with the celebration of Mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Baghdad.
On Sunday, the pope will travel to Erbil to meet with religions and civil authorities before going onto Mosul where he will offer a prayer for the victims of war in Hosh al-Bieaa. He will then meet with members of Qaraqosh’s Christian community at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
On Sunday afternoon, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass at Erbil’s Franso Hariri Stadium.
The pope will depart Baghdad Monday morning to return to Rome.
This is the first papal visit to Iraq and comes at a time when only a few hundred thousand Christians are left in the country. Following the US-led invasion of 2003, sectarian warfare prompted followers of Iraq’s multiple Christian denominations to flee and attacks by ISIS in 2014 further hit all minority communities. According to data from Erbil’s Chaldean Archbishop Warda, there were more than one million Christians in Iraq before 2003. Fewer than 300,000 remain today.
