Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Pope calls for religious tolerance on historic visit
POPE Francis has urged Iraqis to treat their Christian brothers as a precious resource to protect, not an “obstacle” to eliminate, as he opened the first papal visit to Iraq with a plea for tolerance and fraternity among Christians and Muslims.
Francis brushed aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to resume his globe-trotting papacy after a year-long gap under Covid-19 lockdown in Vatican City.
His primary aim over the weekend is to encourage Iraq’s dwindling number of Christians, who were violently persecuted by the so-called Islamic State group and still face discrimination by the Shiite majority, to stay and help rebuild the country devastated by wars and strife.
“Only if we learn to look beyond our differences and see each other as members of the same human family will we be able to begin an effective process of rebuilding and leave to future generations a better, more just and more humane world,” Francis told Iraqi authorities in his welcoming address.
The 84-year-old donned a facemask during the flight from Rome and throughout all his protocol visits, as did his hosts, but the masks came off when the leaders sat down to talk, and social distancing and other health measures appeared lax at the airport and on the streets of Baghdad, despite the country’s worsening Covid-19 outbreak.
Francis was transported around Baghdad in what Iraqi security officials said was an armoured black BMW, flanked by rows of police on siren-blaring motorcycles. It was believed to be the first time Francis had used a bulletproof car.
Iraqis seemed keen to welcome Francis and the global attention his visit was bringing, with some lining the road to cheer his motorcade and banners and posters hanging high in central Baghdad depicting Francis with the slogan “We are all Brothers”.
In central Tahrir Square, a mock tree was erected emblazoned with the Vatican emblem, while Iraqi and Vatican flags lined empty streets.
The government is eager to show off the relative security it has achieved after years of wars and its defeat of the IS insurgency.
Francis’s first main event was a visit with President Barham Salih at the Baghdad palace inside the heavily fortified Green Zone. Francis told Mr Salih and other Iraqi officials that Christians and other minorities should not be considered secondclass citizens in Iraq but deserve to have the same rights and protections as the Shiite Muslim majority.
“The religious, cultural and ethnic diversity that has been a hallmark of Iraqi society for millennia is a precious resource on which to draw, not an obstacle to eliminate,” he said.
“Iraq today is called to show everyone, especially in the Middle East, that diversity, instead of giving rise to conflict, should lead to harmonious co-operation in the life of society.”
Mr Salih echoed his call and praised Francis for coming to make it in person in Iraq.
“The East cannot be imagined without Christians,” he said.
“The continued migration of Christians from the countries of the east will have dire consequences for the ability of the people from the same region to live together.”
AMAN who was diagnosed with a one-in-a-million disease more than 20 years ago received his Covid vaccine from the same “guardian angel” doctor who saved his life when he was younger.
Andy Barr, 44, was diagnosed with Goodpasture syndrome – an autoimmune disease in which antibodies attack the kidney and lungs – when he was 21, thanks to a doctor who by chance was doing a rotation at the Gloucester Royal hospital where he was being treated.
On Tuesday, Mr Barr, who has type one diabetes, turned up for his Covid jab to find it was to be administered by the same doctor who saved his life more than two decades ago.
Mr Barr, a PR specialist from Newent in Gloucestershire, said: “I looked at him and smiled and thought ‘I recognise you’.
“He said ‘I didn’t think it could be the very same Andy Barr. I saw your name this morning and it jumped out at me’.”
Mr Barr said he was “freaked out” and “a bit teary” at the coincidence.
“I was like ‘that is so spooky’,” he said.
“He’s actually retired now. He retired a year ago and he was brought back, I guess by the NHS, to help with this jabbing programme. It’s phenomenal isn’t it?”
The vaccination was the latest in a series of coincidences which have seen the two men’s paths cross.
A few years ago, nearly 20 years after recovering from the illness, Mr Barr was readmitted to hospital when he once again had an issue with his lungs, which turned out to be pneumonia.
“There was a certain amount of panic that this Goodpasture syndrome had come back, so obviously they shine the Bat light for the most senior person, and it just happens to be this doctor again, this guy that saved me 20 years ago,” Mr Barr said.
He said he was a “blubbering wreck” when he saw the doctor for the first time in 20 years.
“That was amazing and he got me
I’d be dead without him, I would be dead without the NHS. They do a phenomenal thing ANDY BARR
through this illness,” he added. A year later, he received a CV “out of the blue” from a woman who wanted an internship at his PR firm, with the same surname as the doctor.
“In she comes and I just said ‘your dad doesn’t happen to be XYZ does he?’ She said ‘yeah’. I was like ‘oh my god’. “She only wanted an internship, but I’d have hired her there and then.”
When Mr Barr first became ill 23 years ago, medics struggled to work out what the problem was.
Mr Barr said that he would have died had the doctor, who he described as being “like my guardian angel”, not stepped in.
“I know this is very dramatic and – as I say, I’m not dramatic and not emotional – I’d be dead without him, I would be dead without the NHS,” he said.
“They do a phenomenal thing.”