From March 5-8, Pope Francis journeyed to several locations in Iraq. The purpose of this trip was primarily a pastoral venture to the suffering Christian population, mostly consisting of Chaldean Catholics along with Syriac Catholics, Assyrians, Eastern Orthodox, among others. The country has seen a decline in Christian civilians from about 1.4 million in 2014 to approximately only 300,000 today.
In response to the escalating exodus of Christians from the country in the wake of political instability and terrorism, Pope Francis urged the remaining Christian community to stay in the country, and even called for those who had left, fleeing persecution, to return. Pope Francis continued by calling for “forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth” among the Christians and Muslims in the nation.
Leading up to the event there were concerns for the pope’s safety, both because of the political turmoil continuing within Iraq, as well as the pandemic itself. The pope, however, remained undeterred and proceeded with the trip.
Another key theme of this trip was the continuation of interfaith dialogue with the Muslim community. One of the first stops the pope made on his visit was to Najaf, a highly important pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims, to talk with Ayatollah Sistani, a prominent leader of the Islamic Shiite community. Talks centered around peaceful co-existence of Christians and Muslims in the region in which the Ayatollah mentioned that he wanted to work towards the “rights of Christians.”
While visiting the city of Mosul, a major stronghold for the Islamic State until recently, Pope Francis commented that “fraternity is more durable than fratricide,” calling upon those of all faiths in the region to be able to live together harmoniously despite their differences.
This trip comes as only the most recent, and dramatic, in a long line of interreligious dialogues between the Holy See and representatives of a number of faiths since the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II and his interreligious meeting at Assisi. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Holy See has viewed itself increasingly in relation to the broader religious world and has been striving for meaningful interactions with leaders of other faiths ever since.
The pope’s visit to Iraq also had a strategic purpose. The invasion of Iraq during the Bush administration in 2003 caused increased tension between the highly unstable government of Iraq and the Vatican in the aftermath. Peter Martin, a professor at Boston College and former counselor to the United States Embassy to the Holy See, noted that the Iraqi government is “grateful for this visit” as it “[gives] a greater sense of credibility to the government.”
This effort to ease relations with the Iraqi government has seemingly been working as, in recent days, the administration formally recognized Christmas as a national holiday and made promises to the Holy Father, assuring him of their continued support of the Christian minority within the country. Tensions, however, still remain high in the region under the threat of a slowly recovering Iraqi government.
The Holy Father made a special visit to the Assyrian Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad, where over 40 Catholics were killed and more injured in a terrorist attack that took place in October 2010. While there, Pope Francis both extolled the courage of those killed, going so far as to advance the cause for their canonization, as well as maintain his constant message for peace and reconciliation among peoples of all religions in the region.
James Pritchett is a Sophomore studying History and Classics with a deep affinity for his native land, the Golden State. Despite being the most recent lover of Catholicism on the Torch staff, he is the C101 editor and his main interests consist of reading Dostoyevsky, playing devil’s advocate, and correcting people on niche theological heresies.
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