Pope to make first-ever trip to Iraq in March: Vatican

Vatican confirms Pope Francis’ first international journey because the pandemic, Iraq calls it a ‘historic occasion’.

Pope Francis will grow to be the primary pope to go to Iraq subsequent 12 months, in a visit to 5 locations, together with Baghdad, Erbil and Mosul between March 5 and March eight, the Vatican mentioned.

“The programme of the journey shall be made recognized in the end, and can consider the evolution of the worldwide well being emergency,” spokesman Matteo Bruni mentioned in an announcement on Monday.

The pope, who turns 84 subsequent week, may even go to Qaraqosh within the Nineveh province, Bruni added.

Will probably be Francis’ first journey in additional than a 12 months. All abroad visits that had been deliberate for this 12 months have been cancelled as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Message of peace’

Iraq’s authorities welcomed the Vatican’s assertion, saying the pontiff’s go to shall be a “historic occasion”.

“It symbolises a message of peace to Iraq and the entire area,” the international ministry mentioned in an announcement.

President Barham Saleh had formally invited Pope Francis to go to Iraq in July 2019, hoping it might assist the nation “heal” after years of strife.

About 100,000 Christians are left in Iraq following sectarian warfare after the 2003 invasion led by america and ISIL’s (ISIS) sweep by one-third of the nation in 2014.

In 2000, the late Pope John Paul II needed to go to the traditional Iraqi metropolis of Ur, historically held to be the birthplace of Abraham, the daddy of all three of monotheistic, or Abrahamic, religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

It was to have been the primary leg of a three-step pilgrimage to Iraq, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territory.

However negotiations with the federal government of then-Iraqi chief Saddam Hussein broke down and he was unable to go.