Pope calls for forgiveness
Pope Francis urges Iraqi Christians to forgive Muslim extremists.
QARAQOSH, Iraq — Pope Francis urged Iraq’s Christians on Sunday to forgive the injustices against them by Muslim extremists and to rebuild as he visited the wrecked shells of churches and met ecstatic crowds in the community’s historic heartland, which was nearly erased by the Islamic State group’s horrific reign.
“Fraternity is more durable than fratricide, hope is more powerful than hatred, peace more powerful than war,” the pontiff said during prayers for the dead in the city of Mosul, with the call for tolerance that has been the central message of his four-day visit to Iraq.
At each stop in northern Iraq, the remnants of its Christian population turned out, jubilant, ululating and decked out in colorful dress. Heavy security prevented Francis from plunging into the crowd as he would normally. Nonetheless, they simply seemed overjoyed that he had come and that they had not been forgotten.
It was a sign of the desperation for support among an ancient community uncertain whether it can hold on. The traditionally Christian towns dotting the Nineveh Plains of the north emptied out in 2014 as Christians — as well as many Muslims — fled the Islamic State group’s onslaught. Only a few have returned to their homes since the defeat of IS in Iraq was declared four years ago, and the rest remain scat
tered elsewhere in Iraq or abroad.
Bells rang out for the pope’s arrival in the town of Qaraqosh.
“The road to a full recovery may still be long, but I ask you, please, not to grow discouraged,” Francis told a packed Church of the Immaculate Conception. “What is needed is the ability to forgive, but also the courage not to give up.”
The Qaraqosh church has been extensively renovated after being vandalized by IS militants during their takeover of the town, making it a symbol of recovery efforts.
Iraq’s Christian population, which has existed here
since the time of Christ, has dwindled from around 1.5 million before the 2003 U.S.led invasion that plunged the country into chaos to just a few hundred thousand today.
Francis’ visit, on its last day Sunday, aimed to encourage them to stay, rebuild and restore what he called Iraq’s “intricately designed carpet” of faiths and ethnic groups.
Dressed in white, Francis took to a red carpeted stage in Mosul on his first stop of the day, surrounded by the gray hollowed-out shells of four churches — Syriac Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Ortho
dox and Chaldean — nearly destroyed in the war to oust IS fighters from the city.
It was a scene that would have been unimaginable years earlier.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was at the heart of the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate and witnessed the worst of the group’s rule inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others, including beheadings and mass killings.
He deviated from his prepared speech to emphasize the plight of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which was subjected to mass killings, abductions and sexual slavery at the hands of IS.
“How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilization, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow,” Francis said, “with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people — Muslims, Christians, Yazidis — who were cruelly annihilated by terrorism and others forcibly displaced or killed.”
IS inflicted atrocities against all communities, including Muslims, during its three-year rule across much of northern and western Iraq. But the Christian minority was hit especially hard. The militants forced them to choose among conversion, death or the payment of a special tax for non-Muslims. Thousands fled.
Throughout his four-day visit, Francis has delivered a message of interreligious tolerance to Muslim leaders, including in a historic meeting Saturday with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
But Christians say it will take real changes on the ground for them to be able to return and stay, saying they face discrimination and intimidation from Shiite militias on top of the economic hardships suffered by all Iraqis.
Qaraqosh resident Martin Auffee, 27, said he was overjoyed by the pope’s visit and appreciated that he showed he was with Christians as he urged them to endure. But he said many of the young in his area have grown weary of lack of opportunity.
“We don’t know for how long they can cling onto hope and continue to stay in Iraq because there’s a lot of pain, unemployment and uncertainty,” he said.
At Qaraqosh, Francis urged its residents to continue to dream — and forgive. “Forgiveness is necessary to remain in love, to remain Christian,” he said.
Francis wrapped up the day with a Mass at the stadium in Irbil. Few in the crowd, estimated at 100,000, wore masks, as was the case during all of Francis’ visits Sunday in northern Iraq.
Public health experts had expressed concerns ahead of the trip that large gatherings could serve as superspreader events for the coronavirus in a country suffering from a worsening outbreak. The pope and members of his delegation have been vaccinated, but most Iraqis have not.