Pope’s plea to Iraqi Christians
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 ISIS’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, but they seemed overjoyed that he had come.
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 people fled ISIS’ onslaught. Only a few have returned to their homes since the defeat of ISIS in Iraq four years ago. The rest remain scattered 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 ISIS militants, 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 to 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.
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 Orthodox and Chaldean.
It was a scene that would have been unimaginable years earlier. Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was at the heart of the ISIS so-called “caliphate” and witnessed the worst
of the group’s rule inflicted on Muslims, Christians and others, including beheadings and mass killings.
It took a ferocious nine-month battle to finally free the city in July 2017. Between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed.
Francis deviated from his prepared speech to emphasize the plight of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, which was subjected to mass killings, abductions and sexual slavery.
“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.”
The Rev. Raed Kallo was among the few Christians who returned to Mosul. “My Muslim brothers received me after the liberation of the city with great hospitality and love,” he said on stage before the pontiff.
Francis wrapped up his visit Sunday with a Mass at the stadium in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region.