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March 04, 2021 "I come among you as a pilgrim of peace, to repeat: 'You are all brothers'. Yes, I come as a pilgrim of peace in search of fraternity, animated by the desire to pray together and to walk together, also with brothers and sisters. the sisters of other religious traditions, in the sign of Father Abraham, who brings together Muslims, Jews and Christians in a single family ", reads a passage from Francis' video message to the Iraqi people on the eve of his departure for his apostolic journey to Iraq. 



The stages of the journey

The

Pope will arrive in Baghdad on March 5

 and on the same day there will be an official welcome ceremony at the presidential palace, a courtesy visit to the president of the republic and a meeting with the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps, then with bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and catechists in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation.

On Saturday 6 March there will be an interreligious meeting at the plain of Ur

and the holy mass in the Chaldean cathedral of St. Joseph in Baghdad.

Sunday 7 the

suffrage

prayer meeting

for the war victims at Hosh al-Bieaa (church square) in Mosul and the visit to the community in the church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh, then the holy mass in the Franso Hariri stadium in Erbil .



 The video message


"Finally I will be among you. I wish so much to meet you, to see your faces, to visit your land, the ancient and extraordinary cradle of civilization. Dear brothers and sisters, I have thought so much of you in recent years, of you who have suffered a lot, but you are not despondent. To you, Christians, Muslims; To you, peoples, like the Yazida people, the Yazidis, who have suffered so much, so much; All brothers, all. Now I come to your blessed and wounded land - says Pope Francis - as a pilgrim of hope. From you, in Nineveh, the prophecy of Jonah resounded, which prevented the destruction and brought a new hope, the hope of God. pandemic, let us help each other to strengthen fraternity, to build together a future of peace. Together, brothers and sisters of every religious tradition. With you, millennia ago, Abraham began his journey. Today it is up to us to continue it, with the same

O spirit, walking the paths of peace together! ".