In a video message, the 84-year-old offered his hand to \u201cbrothers and sisters of other religions,\u201d but also highlighted the heavy toll paid by Iraq\u2019s Christian communities, saying there had been \u201ctoo many martyrs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI long to meet you, to see your faces, to visit your land, ancient and extraordinary cradle of civilization,\u201d the pope said, the day before his three-day trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come as a pilgrim, a penitent pilgrim to implore forgiveness and reconciliation from the Lord after years of war and terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come as a pilgrim of peace in search of fraternity, animated by the desire to pray together and to walk together, also with the brothers and sisters of other religions.\u201d<\/p>\n
There had been \u201ctoo many martyrs\u201d, he said, while survivors \u201chave in your eyes the images of destroyed houses and desecrated churches, and in your hearts the wounds of loved ones left behind and homes abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis is fulfilling the dream of a predecessor, John Paul II, by visiting Iraq — despite a rampaging coronavirus epidemic and an upsurge in violence.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s Christian community — one of the world\u2019s oldest — has fallen from 1.5 million in 2003 to just 400,000 today.<\/p>\n
Published: 04 March ,2021: 02:35 PM GST
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On the eve of his trip to Iraq, Pope Francis paid tribute on Thursday to those who have suffered from years of violence, saying he came as a \u201cpilgrim of peace.\u201d In a video message, the 84-year-old offered his hand to \u201cbrothers and sisters of other religions,\u201d but also highlighted the heavy toll paid by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3028,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions\/3028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euroarab-int.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}