SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Pope Francis arrived in Baghdad on Friday afternoon for a historic visit to Iraq, saying he felt duty-bound to make the “emblematic” visit because Iraq had suffered so much so long.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi welcomed Francis after an Alitalia plane carrying him, his entourage, a security detail, and about 75 journalists, touched down at Baghdad International Airport slightly ahead of schedule just before 2 p.m. local time.
Kadhimi and Francis held a short meeting before the pope left to meet Iraqi President Barham Salah at the presidential palace in Baghdad.
Iraq is deploying thousands of additional security personnel to protect the 84-year-old pope during the visit, which comes after a spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks raised fears for his safety.
A motorcade of dozens of vehicles accompanied Francis out of the airport compound, which has recently come under rocket fire from militia groups.
“I am happy to be making trips again,” he said in brief comments to reporters aboard his plane, according to Reuters.
The Iraq trip is his first outside Italy since November 2019.
“This is an emblematic trip and it is a duty towards a land that has been martyred for so many years,” Francis said, before donning a mask and greeting each reporter individually, without shaking hands.
Francis also met with the Iraqi president at Baghdad Palace after his meeting with Kadhimi.
“We hope pope’s visit will strengthen relations between the religious components,” Salih said in a press conference.
The pope’s whirlwind tour will take him by plane, helicopter and possibly armored car to four cities, including areas that most foreign dignitaries are unable to reach, let alone in such a short space of time, Reuters reported.
Francis will meet clergy at a Baghdad church where Islamist gunmen killed more than 50 worshippers in 2010. Violence against Iraq’s minority religious groups, especially when a third of the country was being run by Islamic State, has reduced its ancient Christian community to a fifth of its once 1.5 million people.
The pontiff will also visit Ur, birthplace of the prophet Abraham, who is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, and meet Iraq’s revered top Shia Muslim cleric, 90-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The meeting with Sistani, who wields great influence over Iraq’s Shia majority and in the country’s politics, will be the first by a pope.
He will visit the Kurdistan Region on Sunday and say a pray at Erbil stadium. The pope will also visit Qaraqosh in the plain of Nineveh.
*This story was updated at 04:14 p.m. EBL time
