The trip, which marks the first papal visit to Iraq, will also include meetings with the country’s top political and religious leaders.
“I’ve wanted to meet those people who suffered so much for a long time,” Francis said Wednesday. The Iraqi people are waiting for us. They were waiting for St. John Paul II, who was not allowed to go, “he added, referring to a trip scheduled for 2000 that was canceled after a break in talks between the Vatican and the then President Saddam Hussein.
“You can’t disappoint people a second time. We pray that this journey can go well.”
Iraqi officials have hailed the visit as an important moment for the country, while admitting privately that the timing of the trip has been a challenge for authorities.
Iraq has imposed a total curfew during the four-day papal visit to try to minimize health and safety risks.
One of the key parts of the Pope’s itinerary is a Saturday visit to the great ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a much revered Shiite cleric. Sistani will receive the pontiff at his residence in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
You can see the papal meeting with Sistani, 90, which is rarely seen in public as one of the most significant summits between a pope and a major Shiite Muslim figure.
Francis has met several times with the great Sunni cleric, Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, who has famously co-signed a 2019 document promising a “human brotherhood” among world religions.
Some hope the meeting with Sistani will serve as a Shiite Muslim component of the pontiff’s efforts to strengthen interfaith relations.
“I hope the Pope stays a month”
The Pope is also scheduled to visit several Iraqi areas and cities linked to the Bible, such as the Ur Plain, considered Abraham’s birthplace.
He is believed to have long wanted to go to Iraq, which is heavily featured in the Bible, and the dwindling Christian minority has suffered greatly from the country’s long cycles of violence.
It was believed to be one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, before the 2003 US invasion, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. About 80% of them have fled, according to major Christian clergy.
Members of the Christian minority, which has been the target of repeated attacks by extremists, say they hope the papal visit will highlight the negligence they feel they have endured by Iraqi authorities.
Many of the country’s Muslim majority, who complain loudly about corruption and mismanagement by the government, also have their hopes set on the trip.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis staged street demonstrations for months, some of which were violently suffocated in the months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The country needs services, security and peace,” said Mohammed Jassem, 50. “[The Pope] he can’t give us these things, but we ask him to call on the management and the parties for these things. ”
“We call on him to unify his ethnicity … the country needs unity and we hope he can bring that to us,” he added.
Iraqi authorities have been busy preparing for the papal visit, clearing streets and paving others where the Vatican delegation is scheduled to go. The new streetlights illuminate the roads and many previously broken traffic lights return to work.
The irony is not lost on Iraqis. “The streets of Baghdad have improved a lot in a week,” said Ahmad al-Assadi, a 41-year-old shopkeeper. “I would like them to stay a month and travel all over Iraq … maybe then they can fix the whole country.”