He held a mass and listened to the testimonies of the homeless ... the Pope of the Vatican on his visit to Mosul and Qaraqosh

Pope Francesco concluded his visit to the town of Qaraqosh in the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq, where he delivered a speech in a destroyed church, and the Pope had called in a mass this morning in the city of Mosul for peace and the rejection of violence and hatred.

In the afternoon, he went to the city of Erbil (the center of the Kurdistan region of Iraq), where he will hold a mass mass this evening there.

In Qaraqosh, the Pope heard the testimonies of a number of Christians who were displaced when ISIS took over their areas in 2014.

In his speech at a mass that was held this afternoon at the Church of the Great Immaculate in Qaraqosh, the Pope called for the restoration of bonds in the community before restoring the buildings, and expressed his pain over the destruction that befell the town, and demanded that everything be rebuilt.

In the mass in Hosh Allegiance in Mosul, the Pope called for peace and the rejection of violence and hatred (Al-Jazeera)

Renounce violence

In a mass that was held this morning in the city of Mosul (the capital of Nineveh governorate), the Pope called for peace and the rejection of violence and hatred.

The mass was held in the "Hosh Al-Baya", a square in the middle of 4 churches in the old Mosul area, which witnessed violent battles to expel ISIS during 2017.

The Pope unveiled Salib, the first to be raised in the "Hosh Allegiance" since ISIS removed it during its control of the city in the summer of 2014.

This evening, the Pope is expected to return to the city of Erbil (the center of the Kurdistan region of Iraq), where he is scheduled to hold a mass mass in the Franso Hariri Stadium, where about 10,000 people are scheduled to attend, according to the visit program.

The Pope of the Vatican had arrived in Iraq on Friday on a historic visit, the first by the Pope of the Vatican to the country, and that will continue until Monday.

Visit stations

Baghdad was his first stop. Then, on Saturday, he went to the city of Najaf (south), and held a historic meeting with the supreme Shiite cleric in Iraq, Ali al-Sistani, before he reached the historic city of Ur and held a unified mass of religions there.

On Sunday morning, the Pope of the Vatican arrived in the city of Erbil, and he met with both the president of the region, Nechirvan Barzani, and the head of the regional government, Masrour Barzani, and from there he went to Mosul.