“Let the guns shut up!” was Pope Francis’s appeal from Iraq, when he arrived in the country as part of his historic visit.
Under strong protection and circulating alone, under a mask, with a severe lockdown in place in the country, the pope went as a “pilgrim of peace” to support one of the oldest Christian communities affected by violence and poverty.
“Violence, extremism, intolerance are enough; corruption is enough,” against which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis protested for months at the end of 2019. Already then the priest had called on Baghdad to stop repressing young people seeking justice.
Referring to the “ancient presence of Christians on this earth”, where Abraham was born, according to tradition, he asked for “their participation in public life, as citizens who enjoy full rights, freedom and obligations.”
According to APE-MPE, Pope Francis condemned the “unthinkable atrocities” of the Islamic State against the Yazidi minority in 2014, when thousands of ethnic women were captured and turned into sex slaves.
“I can not but refer to the Yazidis, innocent victims of unthinkable and inhuman barbarism, who were persecuted for their religious beliefs and whose identity and even survival were threatened,” he told Iraqi leadership. including President Barham Saleh, who also invited him to visit Iraq.
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 6, for the first time in history, the pope will be received in the holy city of Najaf by the great Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a 90-year-old fragile man who has never appeared in public.
The pope will also attend a universal prayer tomorrow in Ur, Abraham’s birthplace in southern Iraq, along with Shiites, Sunnis, Yazidis and Savai religious officials.
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