"I come as a pilgrim (...) after years of war and terrorism." Pope Francis begins, Friday, March 5, a historic visit to Iraq, the first for a sovereign pontiff in this country severely marked by three decades of violence.
This four-day marathon program will begin in Baghdad with stages planned in particular in Najaf, a holy city in the South where he will meet the highest Shiite authority in the country, the great Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, then in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, or else still in Mosul, a former stronghold of the Islamic State organization.
A visit that takes place in a complicated security and health context, after the rocket attack on a US base on Wednesday and in full containment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This event arouses immense fervor within the Christian community, which has fled the country en masse since the American invasion ordered by President George W. Bush in 2003 against the Saddam Hussein regime.
While there are no official statistics, a Senate report estimates that their number fell from 1.2 million at the end of the 1980s to less than 300,000 today.
France 24 spoke with Vincent Gelot, project manager in the region for l'Oeuvre d'Orient, present on site for this visit.
France 24: Most Christians have fled Iraq in recent decades, how to explain this massive exodus?
Vincent Gelot:
Much has been said about the abuses committed against Christians by the Islamic State organization, especially during the Yazidis crisis in 2014, but it must be understood that their exodus began long before that.
Christians have lived a long descent into hell of 30 years, marked by the Iraq-Iran war, the Gulf war, then with the American invasion of 2003 and the civil war.
Before the arrival of ISIS, their numbers had already shrunk.
In Mosul in particular, which housed a large part of the Christian bourgeoisie, there was already racketeering and kidnappings linked to insecurity and banditry.
These persecutions also took place in other traditional cradles of the Christian minority such as Basra or Baghdad, even if the most significant event against Christians in the capital remains the attack on the cathedral in 2010 [attack on Sayidat al cathedral -Najat (Our Lady of Perpetual Help) October 31, 2010, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq, the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda, Editor's note], which claimed the lives of 58 people.
There are no official statistics on the number of Christians in Iraq, but we know that their exodus was massive.
Those who could emigrated abroad.
The others joined Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, or the Nineveh Plain, and in particular Qaraqosh, which has become the largest Christian city in the country.
While a small minority is still present in Baghdad, very few have returned to Mosul.
What are the most pressing humanitarian issues on the ground?
Humanitarian organizations like ours have been very focused on rebuilding infrastructure in recent years, houses but also schools and churches, which are essential landmarks for local populations.
This is not our core business, but we had to overcome the inadequacies of the State in many looted and burnt villages.
Returning to employment is also an important issue, because the country is in a situation of severe economic crisis.
We are also working to reopen Catholic schools, accessible to all, which create an important mix of communities in the region.
If humanitarian aid remains an important issue, the first emergency is above all political, it is a question of restoring a form of stability after decades of violence.
The security issue remains a major problem for the local populations and an obstacle to the return of refugees.
Finally, there is a strong dispute of the structures in place among the youth, which demands a real right to citizenship.
What do you expect from the Pope's visit?
This visit is crucial.
It has been expected for several decades.
For the jubilee of the year 2000, already, Pope John Paul II was due to come but the visit had been canceled because of the tense geopolitical context between the United States and Iraq.
It is therefore an enormous joy for Christians, all the more so with this large program which passes in particular through Erbil and Mosul.
This visit sends a strong message of unity for the Christians of the country, as well as their neighbors such as Syria and Lebanon, also going through major crises.
Many of our Middle Eastern interlocutors are asking for a new synod (deliberative assembly of ecclesiastics), which would make it possible to rethink the place of Christians in the region, their relationship with other communities and to draw up a roadmap.
This action would have a strong symbolic significance because, if the Church has always worked alongside the populations, many Iraqi Christians feel that they have been let go by the West since the American invasion of 2003.
Finally, the scheduled meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, also crystallizes a lot of hope.
The Pope has already met high-ranking Sunni figures in the Middle East.
This interview is seen as a rebalancing exercise.
The majority communities must realize that it is necessary to better protect the Christian community, which is an integral part of the region even if it is a minority, and represents an essential cultural contribution.
Of course, the Pope's visit will not solve basic problems such as chronic instability or the difficult return of refugees, but it constitutes an enormous hope, especially for the Christian youth of the region who today find it difficult to believe in the future.
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