[ad_1]
The idea of the Vatican’s visit to Iraq dates back to 2000. Former Pope John Paul II was very impressed when he fell on the Iraqi people during the ten-year siege. The former pope knew that the possibility of running for Iraq is being discussed in the highest circles of the world. Therefore, the besieged Americans did not welcome the willingness to visit and, surprisingly, were not enthusiastic about the people of power in Iraq at the time. The Pope wanted it to be a message of solidarity, and no one significant in the international resolution wanted that!
Pope Francis’ visit today is also a message of solidarity. This solidarity has multiple meanings and aspects. The Pope confirms that the promise of John Paul II is still present in his conscience and commitment, and wants to fulfill it, despite the caveats and difficulties. Today, however, it is much more necessary and urgent. And this is not only true of the general situation in Iraq; In fact, given what happened to Christians and Yazidis in Iraq during the “ISIS” era, and before and after. The brutality of ISIS cannot be explained or rationalized. Nobody knew and could accelerate the national and human awareness of the pain of the wounded, and human and urban reconstruction. As a result, emigration worsened and Christians and other minorities lost the ability to adapt and adapt to new situations. The Vatican was not absent during this dangerous period. There was nothing left but the Pope tried, and Catholic institutions and other Christian bodies tried. When the Pope meets with Christians in Iraq in the next few days, he will find that their number in twenty years has dropped from one and a half million to about half a million. You will discover that many Christians on the Nineveh Plain are still displaced. And that many churches are still in ruins, and there are reservations about the use of good ones even in Baghdad. But now the Pope is coming, and the Iraqis and their government await him with longing and hope, and the multi-sectarian Iraqi Christians have won the leadership represented by the Chaldean Catholic patriarch Sako, who became a cardinal, and he is a great Iraqi.
The third aspect of the meaning of solidarity in the Pope’s visit is Iraq, its conditions, its future, the future of its unity and its national state. The Pope’s visit is a participation of the Iraqis in their pain over the invasion from abroad and the internal unrest. It is a celebration of the prominent Iraqi trend today after the youth revolution for change towards independence, citizenship, coexistence and democracy.
However, the Pope’s visit to Iraq is also full of symbolism that interests an ancient and religious institution like the Vatican. The first of these symbolisms: Abrahamic symbolism. Despite the historical inconsistency between Judaism and Christianity, there was always some kind of involvement in the relative or spiritual affiliation with Abraham, the father of the prophets. From its earliest era, Islam was excluded from this circle of “respectable religions” (!). In the fifties of the last century, among the Catholic orientalist Louis Massignon and his students, this conviction appeared in the need to recognize the affiliation of Islam with the Abrahamic, as determined by his Qur’an and all his legacies. This was actually done at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), after which the Muslim-Christian dialogue took off in force. One of its heights reached the time of former Pope John Paul II, when this conviction acquired moral and strategic aspects. In the era of Pope Francis and since his first speech in 2013, the Abrahamic Alliance between the three religions has become an absolute conviction, which resulted in covenants and decades in visits to Palestine, Egypt, Morocco and Abu Dhabi, where it reached its climax. in the document of human brotherhood signed by the Pope with the Sheikh of Al-Azhar at the beginning of the year 2019. The matter has evolved with the Pope, so the Abrahamic basis is considered an alliance of human brotherhood based on the unity of the Creator . and creation.
Now the Pope in Iraq visits the ruins of the city of Ur, whose capital and steppes were the birthplace of Abraham, the birthplace of his youth and the starting point of his mission to the Fertile Crescent and Egypt, in the Old Testament. The Abrahamic, who has evidence of conviction with his human mission in the present, has a long history of patience, wisdom, unity and peace, and in all cases faith and trust in the goodness of humanity and its victory in various circumstances.
The second symbolic scene of the papal visit to Iraq is the visit of the Sistani authority in Najaf and a visit to the shrine of Imam Ali. All the Islamic countries that the new pope visited are predominantly Sunni. With the sheikh of the Sunni sheiks, Ahmed al-Tayyib, and the Commander of the Faithful, King of Morocco, he signed documents and agreements. Today he completes his pact with Muslims by meeting in a document with the supreme authority of Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in the world. Therefore, the Pope also sends a message to Muslims with the need to meet and unite in the face of terror and unrest, and the use of religion in conflict and war, and urging the reconstruction of their nation states, states of rights, independence and stability, with full citizenship and a strong and fair state.
The third message, with symbolic dimensions, refers to peace in the Middle East. Unfortunately and regrettably; The matter is no longer limited to Palestine and Jerusalem, and the Pope visited them in 2014 and prayed for peace, passing through Jordan. Rather, unrest is common throughout the region and problems have arisen in their countries that are no less dangerous than the problem of occupation in Palestine at times. And the Pope may not have tank divisions like Stalin rebuked the Vatican in the 1940s. Yet the Pope possesses enormous moral strength, derived from the strength and symbolism of the institution, and also derived from his high moral authority. The papacy is effective in international relations, its global reach, and its calm, broad-minded diplomacy.
Finally, there are two observations, one of which is private if you will, and the other is general. As for the special observation, it refers to the dire situation in Lebanon, which has been the heart of Christianity in the East for a century or more. Lebanon, with its religious (the emergence of the role of Christians in it), cultural and political conditions, was the mediator between East and West, and with the Vatican, Arabs and Muslims. However, this role diminished when the political, economic and cultural situation of Lebanon deteriorated, and it became two states and armies, and the rest of the Lebanese people felt tired and hungry, in the middle of the isolation of the world, that the popes they often visit, but Pope Francis did not visit him despite referring to his tragedy in all his public speeches.
As for the general comment, it refers to our duties, Arabs and Muslims. So “ISIS” is not an experience that can be forgotten so quickly, nor is Al-Qaeda and all the other similar phenomena that exist today, with their atrocities and crimes. And, of course, there is Islamophobia on every continent. Of course, religious institutions and state administrations have made great efforts for two decades. However, the “transformation” towards Islam that does not accept violence or practice it under any circumstances, still requires enormous efforts as well. And if Pope Francis believes in the potential of Islam and Muslims, then it is nothing short of being worthy of this rare opportunity.
[ad_2]
