Forgiving is key, pope tells Iraqis
Francis calls on the nation’s struggling Christians to move forward and rebuild their lives.
QARAQOSH, Iraq — Pope Francis called on Iraq’s Christians to forgive the injustices committed 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.
At each stop in northern Iraq, the remnants of its Christian population turned out, jubilant, ululating, decked out in colorful dress, though heavy security prevented Francis from plunging into the crowd as he would normally do. Nonetheless, they seemed simply overjoyed 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. Traditionally Christian towns dotting the Nineveh plains of the north were emptied as Christians — as well as many Muslims — fled Islamic State militants’ onslaught in 2014. Only a few have returned to their homes since the defeat of Islamic State in Iraq declared four years ago, and the rest remain scattered elsewhere in Iraq or abroad.
Bells rang out in the town of Qaraqosh as the pope arrived. Speaking to a packed Church of the Immaculate Conception, Francis said forgiveness is a key word for Christians.
“The road to a full recovery may still be long, but I ask you, please, not to grow discouraged. 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 Islamic State militants during their takeover of the town, making it a symbol of recovery efforts.
For the Vatican, the continued presence of Christians in Iraq is vital to keeping alive faith communities that have existed here since the time of Christ. The population has dwindled from about 1.5 million before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that plunged the country into chaos to just a few hundred thousand today.
Francis came to Iraq to encourage them to stay and help rebuild the country and restore what he called its “intricately designed carpet” of faith and ethnic groups.
In striking images earlier Sunday, Francis, dressed in white, took to a red carpet stage in a square in the north’s main city, Mosul, surrounded by the gray, hollowed-out shells of four churches, nearly destroyed in the war to oust Islamic State 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 Islamic State’s so-called caliphate and witnessed the worst of the group’s rule — including beheadings and mass killings — inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others.
“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.”
He deviated from his prepared speech to address the plight of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which was subjected to mass killings, abductions and sexual slavery at the hands of Islamic State.
“Today, however, we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace more powerful than war.”
The square where he spoke is home to four different churches — Syriac Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean — each left in ruins.
Islamic State 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 Christians to choose among conversion, death or the payment of a tax for non-Muslims. Thousands fled, leaving behind homes and churches that were destroyed or commandeered by the extremists.
Mosul became the bureaucratic and financial backbone for Islamic State. It was from Mosul’s Nuri Mosque that then-leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi made his only public appearance, when he gave a Friday sermon calling on all Muslims to follow him as “caliph.”
It took a ferocious ninemonth battle to free the city in 2017, during which between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed, according to an Associated Press investigation at the time. Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria in 2019. The war left a swath of destruction across Mosul and the north, and many Iraqis have been left on their own to rebuild amid a years-long financial crisis.
The Rev. Raed Kallo was among the few Christians who returned to Mosul after Islamic State was defeated. “My Muslim brothers received me after the liberation of the city with great hospitality and love,” he said onstage before the pontiff.
Before Islamic State, he had a parish of 500 Christian families. Most migrated abroad, and now only 70 families remain, he said. “But today I live among 2 million Muslims who call me their Father Raed,” he said.