Name: Pope Francis makes first papal visit to Iraq amid security fears - BBC News
Uploaded: 2021-03-05T21:30:09.000Z
Duration: 5 min 47 s
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Pope Francis has arrived in Baghdad at the start of the first ever papal visit to Iraq.

It's been described as his most risky foreign trip.

These are live pictures from Baghdad, where the pope has just arrived at a church, and there has been some concern with a recent surge in coronavirus cases.

That, of course, wherever the pope travels, big crowds tend to gather.

Although we have been told that the 84 year old pontiff has had two doses of the Pfizer biontech vaccine and his entourage as well, those traveling with him have also been vaccinated.

One to embolden and reassure the dwindling Christian community in Iraq, but also a second strand to foster dialogue between the different faiths.

So there are a number of symbolic moments, obviously the first day as, uh, custom and tradition dictates.

He was welcomed by the Iraqi president, Barham Saleh, who said the pope was a cherished guests in Iraq.

Let's have a listen to what the pope had to say during his first remarks of the trip so far, I express my deep gratitude to the president, Mr Saleh, for the kind invitation and the warm, welcoming words that he kindly addressed to me.

Also, on behalf of the authorities and his beloved beloved people, I would like equally to greet all the members of the diplomatic corpse and representatives of the social society.

I also greet affectionately all bishops, all religious, all priests, bishops, uh, nuns, priests and nuns.

And as I'm coming here as a pilgrim to encourage them to express and practice their faith, hope and charity in the Iraqi society.

Well, a little earlier, I spoke to our correspondent Mark Levin, who's in Baghdad is an extremely historic trip for Pope Francis, as you say, the first papal trip to Iraq ever, and Pope Francis's first trip abroad since the Covid pandemic.

So an audacious trip and a risky one as well.

He's coming here to a country where the Christian communities you laid out in that introduction is dwindling.

It was 1.5 million estimated to be before the 2000 and three invasion, now numbering just about 250,000, so his message will be very much uh, to try to reassure and comfort Iraq's Christian community.

But it is also a message urging inter religious dialogue.

So he is now holding meetings with the president and the prime minister.

Today, we understand that he is speaking of the need for fraternal coexistence, strengthening Iraq's democracy.

And then tomorrow Saturday, Ben Pope Francis has a hugely symbolic meeting with Iraq's top Shia cleric, Ayatollah al Sistani.

That is a meeting of the of the top Shia figure in Iraq, one of the most powerful people in this country and the leader of 1.8 billion Catholics around the world.

And yet it is a risky trip to because it is a country, of course that has been torn by inter religious and sectarian conflict and also, of course, by the Covid pandemic, which is seeing new highs.

Many Ben had advised Pope Francis not to travel at this time, but he was determined to do so, determined to come to this extremely important country.

He told me on the plane out here from Rome that he was very happy and that this was, as he described it, a special trip and of course to time the trip now.

I mean, it is a bold statement, isn't it?

Because although I s has been pushed back, it has not been eliminated.

The Covid pandemic is a concern, and also the security risks are still very much there.

And because of the covid risk, there are limited public gatherings apart from a mass on Sunday in Erbil in northern Iraq, in which up to 10,000 people are expected to attend.

And that has raised fears that this whole trip could in effect, become a super spreader.

Now, you mentioned there the the the risk from from Islamic militants and from jihadist attacks.

Well, there were rocket attacks just last week into the Green Zone here in in Baghdad by Shia groups.

There was a twin suicide bombing in January that killed 32 people.

This probably the riskiest of his Papacy.

But it is one which he feels absolutely determined to have come on.

It was one which his predecessors, which Pope John Paul the second wanted to do.

He never managed to do it because negotiations broke down with Saddam Hussein.

And so Pope Francis is the first pope ever to come to this country hugely important to Christianity, the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham.

Well, these are live pictures from inside the Church of our Lady of Salvation.

And it is a hugely significant moment because this is the Syriac Catholic Church, uh, in the capital in Baghdad, where 52 Christians and police were killed in an attack by jihadists in 2010.

This is the pope meeting clergy and bishops there.

 And this really a very clear example of one of the purposes of this trip To embolden and reassure the dwindling numbers of Christians in Iraq that the world has not forgotten them comfort anti. 