SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A delegation from Vatican arrived in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Thursday, according to Iraqi state news agency INA.
The delegation was welcomed by the director of Najaf International Airport Issa al-Shammari, INA reported.
It will make preparations for Pope Francis’ visit to the city in March, the agency said.
Francis is scheduled to pay a four-day visit to Iraq including the Kurdistan Region on March 5.
His forthcoming trip will include stops in Baghdad, Najaf, Nasiriyah, Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh, the Vatican said in the official itinerary of Francis’ visit to Iraq.
The Vatican said Francis would make a “courtesy visit” to the 90-year-old Sistani in Najaf on March 6.
On his first day in Baghdad, Francis will meet with Catholic priests and nuns in the Our Lady of Salvation Church, the site of a 2010 massacre that killed 58 people and was claimed by the al-Qaida group in Iraq, AP said.
The next day, he will host an interfaith meeting in the ancient day of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, after his meeting with Sistani in Najaf.
Francis will head to the Kurdistan Region on his last day trip in Iraq. He will visit Mosul and Qaraqosh in the Nineveh plains from the Region.
He plans to celebrate Masses at Baghdad in a cathedral that was the site of a 2010 bloody attack and in a stadium in Erbil.
