ROME: International media are pursuing the pope’s visit to Iraq with enormous interest. Seventy-5 journalists will vacation aboard the special flight that will get the leader of the Catholic Church from Rome to Baghdad — almost double the quantity typically allowed on a papal flight. In addition, hundreds of reporters and digicam crews will comply with his stop by on the floor.
“This is absolutely a historic journey. Francis is the initially pope to go to Iraq, and he’ll be the initially head of the Christian Church to enter the household of Abraham in Ur, where by the background of Christianity began,” Manuela Tulli, Vatican correspondent for ANSA — Italy’s principal information agency — informed Arab Information.
She has been covering Pope Francis considering that he was elected in 2013. Though this will be her very first visit to Iraq, it will be her sixth excursion as an embedded reporter following him.
This journey “could transform the record of interreligious dialogue,” and “may symbolize a historic turning issue for Iraq,” she claimed.
“The pope will go to that place in the center of the 2nd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, of program, there’s the problem of protection in Iraq.”
Pope Francis has expressed an desire in visiting the nation and the Christians who dwell there considering that he was elected.
“The pope wishes to go. He wishes to send out a concept of peace to a land tormented by war and divisions,” Tulli reported.
“He wishes to go and say ‘basta’ (‘enough’) of war and violence. He is not scared of the pandemic or any protection challenge.”
She stated of the 75 journalists embedded with him, and the almost 50 associates of his entourage: “We’re on the very same aircraft as the pope, and the Vatican has preferred the inns the place we’ll keep. We won’t be ready to go about on our individual. Also for the reason that the program is so tight, there will be no time to do something else. We’ll have to adhere to him around the clock.”
The pope is due to get there in Baghdad on March 5, and will be welcomed by Iraq’s key minister. He will then check out the country’s president at the presidential palace, where by he will meet with nearby authorities, associates of civil modern society and the diplomatic corps.
He will also meet with bishops and monks at the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Woman of Salvation in Baghdad.
On March 6, he will fly to the city of Najaf and satisfy with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani. The pope will return to Baghdad that day and celebrate Holy Mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph.
On March 7 he will go to Erbil, money of Iraqi Kurdistan, and meet with spiritual and civil authorities of the autonomous region. He will also pay a visit to the town of Qaraqosh. His return to Rome is scheduled for March from Baghdad.
“I hope Christians in Iraq will be specifically impressed to see the pope pronounce the Angelus, the Sunday prayer, from the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh, which Daesh utilized as a shooting range for its militiamen,” said Tulli.
“I’m positive that Francis will say a word of hope for people who’ve lived through terrible moments because of to Daesh,” she included.
“The inter-religious prayer at Ur will be exciting. That moment will be like the closing of a circle for history.”
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