With time spinning fast, His Holiness Pope Francis’ historic visit to Iraq is coming soon. He will visit bleeding Iraq on March 5-8, 2021 which serves as a message of peace and interfaith dialogue to the entire world.
The eyes of the world leaders and peoples are focused on this extremely important visit with speculations on how the Pope will act in the direction to sowing the seeds of love, peace, prosperity, and common living in this country that has been plagued with violence, extremism, and bloodshed. Once these seeds will germinate, Iraq will definitely recuperate and restore its constructive and fruitful role at the local, regional, and global arenas. Pope Francis’ visit is definitely intended to help dress the wounds of Iraq and to resuscitate a country drifting on the edge of confusion and annihilation.
Among the major goals of the Pope’s visit is to help give assurances to the Christian Iraqis, who are the indigenous people of Iraq, that peace, security, common living and prosperity is almost on the way. He will try to convince them that leaving the country of their ancestors is not a solution, since their country needs them in order to continue their civilized and constructive role, and to help extricate the country from the abyss of helplessness. With stability and peace ensured, Iraqi families who fled their country will hopefully return home and help rebuild their country of civilization.
In a recent statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi, he said: "Iraq is not Iraq without Christians. We Iraqis are strong in our cultural and religious plurality, and we will remain a symbol of coexistence, tolerance and true citizenship, despite all the pitfalls of obscure groups which failed in their plans to destroy the our wonderful country."
It is rather to be admitted that despite the fact that Iraq is not Iraq without Christians, yet what is important is to regard the fact that “an Iraq without its indigenous Christians is orphaned country”, bereft of its civilized roots, culture, and civilization. Iraq is beautiful with its diversity, for with such diversity creativity emerges and the country is shoved into an era of progress in every field of life. An Iraq without its indigenous Christians is a barren land characterized by monotony and stagnancy.
The Pope’s visit to Iraq is a last-ditch attempt to restore stability to Iraq after having been on a via crucis of pain and suffering. With the visit in the near offing, it is important to welcome the Pope and assure him that the whole peace-loving people support his divine endeavor to restore normalcy to an ailing country. The Christian Iraqi s, the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world, are vehemently awaiting this visit as the vast majority of them are indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking ethnic Assyrians of the Syriac Christian tradition.
Iraq plays a rich and vital contribution to Christian history, since it has the most Biblical history of any other country in the world. The patriarch Abraham was from Uruk, in southern Iraq, modern day Nasiriya, and Rebeccawas from northwest Iraq. Additionally, Daniel lived in Iraq most of his life. The prophet Ezekiel was from southern Iraq and his shrine is located there. Shrines of the prophet Jonah and Saint George are also located there, and various other Biblical prophets and saints are said to have been originally from there as well. Adam and Eve are also widely thought to have hailed from Iraq, as the biblical Garden of Eden is largely attributed to have been located in southern Iraq.
Among the highlights of the historic visit is that the Pope will meet with senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to discuss issues relevant to fighting extremism, rejecting violence and terrorism, and promoting peace. Furthermore, the two leaders are scheduled to sign a document on human fraternity aimed at promoting mutual trust among followers of all faiths and commitment to values like peace, fraternity, peaceful coexistence, justice and benevolence.
In the spirit of the upcoming papal visit, Cardinal Sako has composed a prayer asking the faithful to recite it during Masses every Sunday. It is important to recite this prayer throughout the coming days and say:
“Lord our God, grant Pope Francis health and safety to carry out successfully this eagerly awaited visit. Bless his effort to promote dialogue, enhance fraternal reconciliation, build confidence, consolidate peace values and human dignity, especially for us Iraqis who have been through painful “events” that affected our lives.
Lord and Creator, enlighten our hearts with Your light, to recognize goodness and peace, and to realize them.
Mother Mary, we entrust Pope Francis’ visit to your maternal care so that the Lord may grant us the grace of living in full national communion, and to cooperate fraternally to build a better future for our country and our citizens. Amen.”
Pope Francis, you are welcome in Iraq. May Lord Jesus bless you, protect you, and help you attain your noble and sublime mission in Iraq.
