• Middle East The miracle of the bibles that were saved from the caliphate of the Islamic State

  • Tension The Pope confirms his visit to Iraq, which suffers a new rocket attack on a base with US troops

Pope Francis today began a risky journey in Iraq - the first since the Covid19 pandemic emerged - launching a message from Baghdad that stressed the need to subordinate the significance of religious affiliation to the concept of "citizenship", thus supporting the idea. of separation of religion and state that perhaps could seem unusual coming from the highest hierarch of an entity like the Vatican.

The Pontiff arrived in the Iraqi capital a little before 2 in the afternoon and was received by Prime Minister

Mustafa al-Kadhimi

, who had already insisted in a previous tweet that the Arab nation welcomed the religious leader in a territory that "It was and will continue to be the historical setting for the meeting of religions, ideas and common human values."

The landing of the Pontiff's plane was

greeted with the ringing of the bells of the churches of Erbil

, in the north of the country, where a large representation of members of this religious confession is concentrated.

The Pope plans to meet with the local president,

Barham Saleh

, and attend a small meeting with the Christian community of the capital in the notorious Syrian-Catholic cathedral of "Our Lady of Salvation", scene of the massacre of 47 people at the hands of Al Qaeda in 2010, an event that accelerated the flight of members of this faith from Iraq, which later became a massive escape after the Islamic State offensive in 2014.

Iraq had about 1.5 million Christians before the catastrophic invasion promoted by the United States

- with the support of Spain - in 2003, a decision that plunged the country into chaos, civil war and led to the emergence of Islamist radicalism. .

Now, after being harassed by fundamentalists, there are only a few hundred thousand Christians, mostly clustered in the northern regions.

More than 1,200 Christians murdered

The head of the Chaldean church in Iraq, Cardinal

Luis Rafael Sacco

, estimated that over 1,200 Christians have been murdered in Iraq these years and that 58 churches have been destroyed or have suffered attacks.

According to the foundation "Aid to the Church in Danger",

only 36,000 of the 102,000 Christians

who left the northern province of Nineveh

have returned

and a third of that small group has expressed their intention to leave the country due to the precarious economic situation and security they face.

Pope Francis plans to visit six cities, both in the south and north of the country, and on Saturday he will meet with the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the meeting with the most political and spiritual significance of the entire journey.

The Christian religious themselves remember that the members of their community are far from being the only ones who have suffered the consequences of all these years of violence in which

hundreds of thousands of Muslims died either during the invasion

or at the hands of the multiple armed groups that emerged. later, including the radicals of the Islamic State.

One of the main problems that the papal journey could encounter, the growing tension between the pro-Iranian militias operating in the country and the United States forces deployed in this territory, could have been eliminated after the same group responsible for the attack against a The Erbil base that killed a US army contractor on February 15 announced a ceasefire during Francis

'

trip

"as a sign of respect for Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani."

"We are Arabs and we honor the guest. We welcome the Pope ... you are a decent man and if your visit had been made earlier, when women and Christians were captured, when a third of Iraq fell into the hands of ISIS , it would have had a greater impact among those who suffer, "said the armed movement in a message broadcast through social networks.

Militia harassment campaign

However, this announcement contrasts with the information published in the Iranian daily 'Kayha' which indicated that rocket attacks against US soldiers will increase in the coming days.

The same morning described the latest action of this type as "humiliation", which took place this Wednesday at the Ain Al Asad base, in the west of the country.

A dozen projectiles hit this barracks

- where a small Spanish contingent also resides -

causing the death by cardiac arrest of a civilian employee of the American army.

In the same vein, pro-Iranian formations such as

Hezbollah, Sayid al-Shuhada or Asaib ahl al-Haq

promised on Thursday to continue their campaign of harassment of what they described as "occupying forces."

"We are facing a new phase in which the weapons of the resistance will reach all the bases of the occupation forces in any part of the country. The resistance has the legal right and popular support to do so," they added.

The United States maintains about

2,500 military personnel in Iraq within an international coalition

aimed at continuing to harass the Islamic State and train the local army.

The US embassy in Baghdad itself launched an alert on Friday in which it warned of the imminent "threat of missile or drone attacks against civilians and other targets in Iraq", associating this "significant" danger with groups "supported by Iran."

The aforementioned Cardinal Luis Rafael Sacco, insisted in a televised statement that the papal visit and especially the acts of Ur and his interview with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani aim to strengthen the dialogue between Christians and Muslims to overcome the antagonism that some have tried to generate. extremist sectors on both sides.

"We have to abandon the mentality of communities towards the idea of ​​citizens,"

said Sacco.

In an interview with the local newspaper 'Al Mada', Sacco affirmed that in his meeting with Sistani the Pope could star in a "surprise":

"It is possible that he will invite Sistani to visit the Vatican

(something that would be an unprecedented event) or that a joint communiqué is published, a fatwa (religious edict) adopted by both rejecting hatred and violence, and calling for tolerance and distancing from all forms of differences and extremism. "

Foreign Minister

Fuad Hussein

also praised the message of "tolerance and peace" that according to him the Pope brings and described the visit as an encounter between "the minarets and the bells."

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