Vatican City: The Vatican on Monday announced that Pope Francis will tour Iraq between 5 and 8 March.
The visit “will take into consideration the evolution of the worldwide health emergency”, the Vatican said in a statement.
“Pope Francis, accepting the invitation of the Republic of Iraq and of the local Catholic Church, will make an Apostolic journey to the aforementioned country on 5-8 March 2021. He will visit Baghdad, the plain of Ur, linked to the memory of Abraham, the city of Erbil, as well as Mosul and Qaraqosh in the plain of Nineveh,” the Vatican statement said.
The programme of the journey will be made known in due course, and will take into consideration the evolution of the worldwide health emergency,” the statement added.
Iraqi President Barham Salih said in tweet that the papal trip “will be a message of peace to Iraqis”.
Iraq is home to several churches, both Catholic and Orthodox.
Iraq’s Christian population of several hundred thousand were persecuted when Islamic State terrorists controlled large swathes of the region between 2014 and 2017.
In 2000, the late Pope John Paul II wanted to visit Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, the father of all three religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
But talks with the government of then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein collapsed and the tour cancelled.