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Baghdad (AP) - Pope Francis begins a four-day visit to Iraq this Friday.

The 84-year-old is the first head of the Catholic Church to travel to the crisis country.

For many members of the suffering Christian community in the predominantly Muslim country, a long-cherished wish has come true.

Because of the corona pandemic, the trip also raises questions.

Francis wants to celebrate a mass with thousands of believers in a stadium in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.

The number of new infections in Iraq is currently rising sharply again.

For Francis it is the first trip abroad since the pandemic began more than a year ago.

After his arrival in the capital, Baghdad, meetings with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kasimi and President Barham Salih are planned for the afternoon.

The 84-year-old also has meetings with representatives of civil society and the local church.

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Francis wants to visit different regions of the country within four days.

One of the highlights is a meeting with Iraq's most important Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The program also includes an interreligious encounter in the plain of Ur, from which, according to biblical tradition, Abraham originated.

In the north he wants to visit the city of Mosul, formerly the most important stronghold of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).

He also meets with Christians in the nearby town of Karakosch.

Because of persecution, war and economic hardship, Iraq's Christian community, once more than one million believers, has shrunk considerably in recent decades.

It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 400,000 Christians today.

The country has a total of around 40 million inhabitants.

Many members of the religious minority have long been hoping for a papal visit and see this as a sign of hope.

At his general audience on Wednesday, Francis said that he had long wished to get to know the people in Iraq who had suffered so much.

He doesn't want to disappoint her.

«The Iraqi people have been waiting for John Paul II, who has been banned from traveling.

You can't disappoint a people a second time. "

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In the run-up to the trip, there was criticism because the already vaccinated Pope wants to visit Iraq in the middle of the pandemic.

It was only this week that the number of new infections every day rose to a record high.

The security situation has also worsened again.

In January one of the worst IS attacks in years occurred in Baghdad.

In addition, Iranian Shiite militias repeatedly fire rockets at the stationed US army in order to achieve their withdrawal from Iraq.

As with previous trips, the focus should be on dialogue with other religions.

Before departure, Francis said that he wanted to pray together with brothers and sisters who had other religious customs - under the sign of Abraham, who united Muslims, Jews and Christians in one family.

The Pope visited the United Arab Emirates in 2019 and also met the high religious representative of Sunni Islam, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tajjib.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210305-99-696645 / 2

Program of the Pope's trip