After nearly four days, the first ever papal visit to Iraq has come to an end. At Baghdad airport, Pope Francis waved for the last time to the assembled masses. The 84-year-old church leader said Iraq will always hold a place in his heart. President Barham Salih escorted him over a red carpet to his plane.
Fearing chaos and violence, the visit was tightly directed and 10,000 security guards were on the move. The dreaded attack did not materialize, but whether that also applies to the dreaded superspreader event is still the question.
Iraq has 13,500 registered covid deaths and has recently been experiencing a sharply rising number of infections.
Mouth caps
Wherever the Pope appeared, people huddled together to catch a glimpse of him. Only a few wore masks, especially yesterday in Northern Iraq. There, Francis offered a prayer at the ruins of the Al-Tahira Church in the former IS stronghold of Mosul, led a service at the restored Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Christian enclave of Karakosh, and celebrated mass for 10,000 Roman Catholic believers. in a stadium in Erbil.
The Pope came to Iraq with a message of peace and reconciliation. On Saturday he met in Najaf with Ayatollah al-Sistani, who has been the foremost clergyman in Iraq for decades.
Abraham
That same day he prayed at the temple of Ur, the supposed birthplace of Abraham, who is considered patriarch by Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Visiting one of the oldest vestiges of human civilization, in southern Iraq at the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris, he implemented a plan devised more than 20 years ago by his predecessor John Paul II. It had not happened until now, first because dictator Saddam Hussein did not want it, and later because Iraq fell to chaos and violence after the fall of Saddam.
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