Pope Says Trip to Iraq This Year Off

Date: 26 February 2020 - 22:10

News ID: ۷۶۵۹۴

VATICAN CITY (Dispatches) – Pope Francis has indicated he will not be visiting Iraq this year as he had planned to do.
His improvised comments to a group of visiting Iraqis during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square were his clearest yet that the trip had been indefinitely postponed.
"To you citizens of Iraq, I say I am very close to you. You are (in) a battleground. You suffer war, from one side and the other,” he said. "I pray for you and I pray for your country, where a visit by me had been programmed for this year.”
The pope first said in June that he wanted to visit Iraq, birthplace of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, who is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, in 2020.
But security concerns meant that the trip was never announced by the Vatican and preparations never reached a formal stage.
Iraq’s small Christian population of several hundred thousand suffered particular hardships when Daesh controlled large parts of the country, but have recovered freedoms since the terrorists were pushed out.
Last month, Francis met Iraqi President Barham Salih.
The Christian presence in Iraq, and some other countries in the Middle East, is deep-rooted.