FORGIVE AND REBUILD, POPE TELLS IRAQIS
Francis said ‘forgiveness’ is a key word for Christians as he visited Qaraqosh amid churches wrecked during Daesh’s horrific reign |
Pope Francis urged Iraq’s Christians on yesterday 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 Daesh group’s horrific reign.
At each stop in northern Iraq, the remnants of its Christian population turned out, jubilant, ululating and decked out in colourful 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 Daesh onslaught. Only a few have returned to their homes since the defeat of Daesh in Iraq was declared four years ago, and the rest remain scattered elsewhere in Iraq or abroad.
Road to recovery
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 the ability to forgive, but also the courage not to give up.” The Qaraqosh church has been extensively renovated after being vandalised by Daesh 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 US-led invasion that plunged the country into chaos to just a few hundred thousand today.
Francis’s visit to Iraq aims to encourage them to stay, rebuild and restore what he called Iraq’s “intricately designed carpet” of faiths and ethnic groups.
Mass at Mosul
Dressed in white, Francis took to a red carpeted stage in the north’s main city, Mosul, his first stop of the day, surrounded by the grey hollowed-out shells of four churches nearly destroyed in the war to oust Daesh 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 Daesh’s so-called “caliphate” and witnessed the worst of the group’s rule inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others, including beheadings and mass killings.
“How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, 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 emphasise the plight of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which was subjected to mass
killings, abductions and sexual slavery at the hands of Daesh.
Power of peace
“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.
Throughout his four-day visit, Francis has delivered a message of interreligious tolerance and fraternity to Muslim leaders. 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 Arbil, in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. Nearly 10,000 people erupted in ululating cheers when he arrived and did a lap around the track in his open-sided popemobile, the first and only time he has used it on this trip due to security concerns.
Makeshift altar
On the makeshift altar for the Mass was a statue of the Virgin Mary that was restored after Daesh militants chopped of its head and hands when they took over the ancient Assyrian town of Keramlis, near Mosul, in August 2014.
The pope heads back to Rome this morning.