Enlarge this imageAn Iraqi policeman walks by a mural depicting Pope Francis on the outer walls of Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad on Monday. Pope Francis’ visit from March 5 to 8 will include trips to Baghdad, the city of Mosul and a meeting with the country’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionAhmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty ImagesAn Iraqi policeman walks by a mural depicting Pope Mookie Wilson Jersey Francis on the outer walls of Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad on Monday. Pope Francis’ visit from March 5 to 8 will include trips to Baghdad, the city of Mosul and a meeting with the country’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty ImagesBAGHDAD On a recent Sunday in Baghdad, a congregation of Chaldean Catholics gather masked and distanced to attend Ma s at the Church of the Holy Family. Some are from the capital, others fled the north of the country when ISIS seized swaths of territory nearly seven years ago. “They announced it in the churches leave, quickly, ISIS is coming,” says Nadera Butrus Tobya, 62, at church with her little grandson. She had been at a gathering before her daughter’s wedding near the Iraqi city of Mosul. The family piled into cars and fled the extremists and she has been in Baghdad ever since. “Christians are persecuted,” she says. But her face brightens when she speaks of Pope Francis, who plans to visit Iraq next month. “When we heard that we would see the pope,” she says, “it was as if the world was reborn. Praise God.” Even if she only sees him on television, she will be happy. “He is a brave man to come under such circumstances.” If the visit goes ahead despite a large increase in daily new coronavirus cases and security concerns, including a recent rocket attack on U.S. forces it will be the first ever papal trip to Iraq.Pope Francis is due to arrive in Baghdad on March 5, where he will be welcomed at the Presidential Palace, and later meet Christian leaders. He will visit Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential leader of Iraq’s Shiite Muslims, in Najaf and attend an interreligious meeting in Ur. He will also visit the north of the country, celebrating Ma s in Irbil and saying prayers in Mosul, before departing March 8. Iraqi Christians trace their roots back almost to the very beginning of the faith, but in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion and the rise in extremist violence, the community has dwindled.Parallels ISIS Is Gone, But Iraqi Christians Are Wary Of Returning Home It is difficult to know the exact number of Christians still living in Iraq, because there has not been a full census since 1987, says William Warda, who works with the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, which campaigns on behalf of minorities. Warda is a member of Iraq’s A syrian Christian community. He estimates there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq at the time of the 2003 U.S. invasion, citing an earlier partial census. Now, just 400,000 may remain in the country, he says, based on clergy tallies. “Every parish, every church knows the followers that belong to it,” he says. However, Warda says church leaders may be reluctant to release official totals in order not to lose the five-seat quota granted to Christians in the 329-seat national legislature.World ‘It Was Like Magic': Iraqis Visit Babylon And Other Heritage Sites For 1st Time”It is very normal now for a Christian family to come to me and tell me they want to leave,” says the Rev. Gha san al-Botany. He says Todd Frazier Jersey ruefully he has no authority to tell them to stay, “but I tell them, think about it. Why? Because the Arab region lost many Christians.” He hopes hearing something similar from the pope during his visit will strengthen people’s resolve to stay. “When these words come from a supreme authority, it has a flavor and a difference,” he says. “The Iraqi Christian loses part of his faith, part of his legacy and part of his roots when he travels outside.” Enlarge this imageIraqi Christians attend Ma s at the Syriac Catholic church of Our Lady of Salvation, in Baghdad, on Oct. 30, 2016. Militants attacked the church in 2010.Sabah Arar/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionSabah Arar/AFP via Getty ImagesIraqi Christians attend Ma s at the Syriac Catholic church of Our Lady of Salvation, in Baghdad, on Oct. 30, 2016. Militants attacked the church in 2010.Sabah Arar/AFP via Getty ImagesFather Gha san says a turning point came in 2010, when militants burst into Our Lady of Salvation cathedral in Baghdad, killed two priests, and took about 150 hostages. Iraqi and American special forces burst in to free the hostages hours later, but the attack left dozens dead and the church scarred and bloodied.More than a decade later, Gary Carter Jersey the pope is due to visit the same church and has called for support for an enduring Christian presence in the country and the region. “We must work to ensure that the Christian presence in these lands continue to be what it has always been: a sign of peace, progre s, development and reconciliation between peoples,” Francis told a group of Catholic charities shortly after the Vatican announced plans for the trip in December. His trip will also take him to places where very few Christians live, and most everyone is Muslim. Enlarge this imageAn Iraqi walks around the House of Abraham in the biblical city of Ur, in southern Iraq, in 2002. It is one of the sites Pope Francis is scheduled to visit on his trip to Iraq in March.Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionKarim Sahib/AFP via Getty ImagesAn Iraqi walks around the House of Abraham in the biblical city of Ur, in southern Iraq, in 2002. It is one of the sites Pope Francis is scheduled to visit on his trip to Iraq in March.Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty ImagesThe schedule includes an interreligious meeting on the Plain of Ur, the site of an ancient city that scripture records as the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham. These days, Ur is an archaeological site, where visitors can tour the ziggurat a Mesopotamian pyramid largely reconstructed in the pre-2003 era of Saddam Hu sein and sunbaked ruins known as the House of Abraham. At the site, gardeners and construction workers are sprucing things up, while tourists play pop music and take selfies on the ziggurat. “I’m so excited,” says Bdoor al-Asady, 19, a medical student visiting the site with her parents. She’s Muslim and says Abraham is an important figure in Islamic scriptures, so the pope’s visit to the site matters to Muslims, too. The site’s director, Ali Kadhim, says he has been waiting for this moment since 1999, when Pope John Paul II canceled a planned trip after negotiations with Saddam Hu sein failed. He has worked at the site for more than 20 years. Enlarge this imageRuins of the Great Ziggurat temple in the ancient city of Ur, where Abraham is thought to have been born. The site falls now in southern Iraq’s Dhi Qar province. Francis is scheduled to attend an interreligious gathering in Ur.Asaad Niazi/AFP via Getty Imageshide captiontoggle captionAsaad Niazi/AFP via Getty ImagesRuins of the Great Ziggurat temple in the ancient city of Ur, where Abraham is thought to have been born. The site falls now in southern Iraq’s Dhi Qar province. Francis is scheduled to attend an interreligious gathering in Ur.Asaad Niazi/AFP via Getty Images”This place is my life,” he says. “I was isolated from the world because I spent my life here.” Kadhim notes that Abraham is central to Islam, Christianity and Judaism and, a Muslim himself, he says the papal visit is a symbol of the tolerant side of the country.Parallels Piece By Piece, Monks Scramble To Preserve Iraq’s Christian History “Muslims welcome this visit,” he says. “And they are interested in it, because it reflects the reality of relations between religions in Iraq.” Despite the persistence of religiously motivated violence by extremist groups, Kadhim’s words echo aspirations many Iraqis expre s for a society where different religions and sects can coexist. In the nearby city of Nasiriya, people admiring the sunset over the Euphrates river say they hope the pope’s visit will bring more Christians to the area, po sibly making pilgrimages to the ancient sites. “It will attract people to the country,” says Hu sein al-Salehi, 59, a school teacher. “They will hear about it in Italy and France and elsewhere, that a senior cleric went to Iraq, and was protected, and came to no harm.” He thinks it could help this poor area to prosper. He hopes the visit will be a me sage of rea surance to Iraqi people, as well. “There are people here who respect and Wilmer Flores Jersey value all religions.” And this, he says, is a me sage Iraq needs.
