Pope Francis arrives at Baghdad international airport, kicking off his 33rd Apostolic Journey overseas and the pretty initial papal pay a visit to to Iraq.

By Linda Bordoni

Welcoming Pope Francis on the tarmac was a team of spiritual and political authorities representing the lots of distinct realities of Iraq’s diverse make-up, as perfectly as a group of Iraqi citizens and two children with a posy of flowers for the Holy Father.

The welcoming delegation integrated the Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq, Archbishop Mitja Leskovar, as properly as associates of the Chaldean Archeparchy of Baghdad, the Latin Archdiocese of Baghdad, the Syriac Archeparchy of Baghdad, and the Armenian Archeparchy of Baghdad, as well as the country’s Primary Minister, Mustafa Abdellatif Mshatat, the President of the Republic and his wife.

Pilgrim of peace

Pope Francis will spend four days in the Middle Eastern country for the duration of which he will vacation north and south as “a pilgrim trying to get peace, fraternity and reconciliation”, as he himself has said.

His powerful timetable foresees moments of prayer and come across with Christian communities and representatives of the Catholic Church in Iraq, as properly as meetings to foster interreligious dialogue.

As for each protocol, the Pope’s first official assembly can take area at the Presidential Palace. For the duration of the courtesy stop by he fulfills privately with President Barham Ahmed Salih Qassim.

State pay a visit to

The palace itself was constructed on the orders of King Faisal II who headed the country between 1953 and 1958 soon after the murder of the reigning monarch. It was previous Iraqi chief Saddam Hussein’s desired area to fulfill visiting Heads of Point out. The palace by itself served as the MNF-I Headquarters of coalition troops through the occupation of Iraq, as effectively as the primary base of operations for the American diplomatic mission in Iraq until eventually the opening of the new US Embassy in Baghdad in 2009. It was then returned to Iraqi control.

After the courtesy take a look at with the President and his entourage, Pope Francis fulfills with political, civil and spiritual authorities, the diplomatic corps, the business entire world and associates of cultural institutions.

Pope’s greetings to journalists aboard the papal flight

For the duration of the 4 and a fifty percent hour flight, Pope Francis greeted the journalists travelling with him aboard the Alitalia A330 airplane.

“I am joyful to resume my travels,” he mentioned, describing this visit as “a responsibility to a land that has been martyred for so lots of many years.”

He thanked those people current for their work and their company. The director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, expressed everyone’s enjoyment to be travelling once again after a hiatus of 15 months owing to coronavirus limits.

He thanked Pope Francis “for his willingness to make a pilgrimage to Iraq”, and recalled his text a handful of times ago when he mentioned he did not want to disappoint the persons two times, referring to Pope St John Paul II wish to stop by Iraq and the fact that he was by no means ready to do so.

Bruni then thanked the Pope for enabling very a number of journalists to accompany him on the journey, some thing that “was not to be taken for granted.”

National Journalism Award

He mentioned there were being “74 journalists from 15 international locations” on the papal flight. In the course of the trade, the Pope was presented with a “Maria Grazia Cutuli” Italian Countrywide Journalism Award 2021, on the twentieth anniversary of her demise in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

On the certificate, Pope Francis is described as a “Particular Envoy” who “sporting out his footwear, travels the streets of the entire world in the name of Religion, Fraternity and Peace”. 

Pope Francis arrives in Baghdad