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According to the AP and AFP news agency, Pope Francis, who arrived in Mosul by helicopter from Erbil, a city in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, in the early morning of the last day of his three-day visit to Iraq, he peacefully coexisted in Mosul Square, adjacent to four churches destroyed in the course of the war with IS.
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Mosul, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, was the largest base for the terrorist organization until the defeat of the Islamic State in 2017.
In northern Iraq’s Ninawa province, where Mosul belongs, an IS attack forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate.
“The tragic expulsion of Christians from Iraq and elsewhere has done innumerable damage to people and communities, as well as to the regions where they left,” the pope said in a speech against the partially collapsed Catholic cathedral of Altahera in Mosul. They prayed for the Christians. in Iraq and the Middle East to remain in their places of origin.
The Pope lamented: “How cruel it is that this country, which used to be the cradle of civilization, has been damaged by such a brutal attack, ancient places of worship were destroyed and many Muslims, Christians and Yazidis were forcibly displaced. or killed. ” He mentioned the adversity of the Yazidi, who were subjected to massacres, kidnappings and sex slaves.
“But today we reaffirm that brotherhood lasts longer than brotherhood, hope is stronger than hatred and peace is more powerful than war.”
Subsequently, the Pope visited Karakosi, a city 30 km from Mosul, and celebrated mass.
Karakosi is the largest and oldest Christian village in Iraq, destroyed by ISIS in 2014 and has been slowly restored since 2017.
In the mass of the Karakosi Cathedral, called Altahera, like Mosul Cathedral, the Pope exhorted believers to “not stop dreaming. Do not give up. Do not lose hope” and comforted them “It is time to rebuild and begin again. . ”
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After returning to the autonomous Kurdish city of Erbil, the Pope celebrated a large mass at a local stadium to comfort the Christians who survived under the IS.
Even at the risk of spreading a new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), thousands of people attended the Erbil mass and welcomed the Pope.
“I heard voices of pain and loss while I was with you, but at the same time I heard voices of hope and comfort,” the Pope blessed. “Now is the time for me to return to Rome, but Iraq will always remain in my heart.”
Erbil has been a camp for refugees who have escaped IS violence for many years.
The Pope’s bodyguards raised their vigilance to the maximum that day, considering that remnants of IS still remain in northern Iraq.
After completing the Erbil Mass, the Pope will move to Baghdad, completing his visit to Iraq.
The Pope has publicly expressed his desire to visit Iraq, which has been damaged by war on several occasions since its accession in 2013.
On the 6th of the previous day, he visited Najaf, a Shiite shrine in southern Iraq, and held a historic meeting with the Shiite Islamic leader, Ayatollah Ali Alsistani, and conveyed the message of “peaceful coexistence.”
The number of Christians who have been in Iraq for more than 2,000 years reached 1.5 million in 2003. However, the number of them has gradually decreased, and recently there are only about 400,000 people left, representing only 1% of the population.
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