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Pope Francis lands in Baghdad to begin historic visit

Baghdad - Pontiff is due to deliver speeches and celebrate Mass in Iraq capital.

Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on a visit to rally the country’s dwindling Christian community after decades of war.

The pontiff’s landmark visit has been months in the making and is the first papal visit to Iraq, one that eluded his predecessors. He brings a message of peace and coexistence to comfort the country’s deep-rooted Christian minority, many of whom fled the country in the successive conflicts that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

His trip will begin in Baghdad, where he is due to deliver speeches and celebrate Mass in the capital’s churches, and cover the holy city of Najaf, the plains of Ur in Nassiryah province, as well as Mosul and Irbil in the north.

The Alitalia flight, with both Vatican and Iraqi flags, carrying the pope and his delegation landed just before 2 p.m. (1500 UAE time). A red carpet was rolled out on the tarmac in Baghdad’s international airport.

Dozens gathered along the airport road with hopes of catching a glimpse of the pope’s convoy.

Iraq has deployed thousands of additional security personnel to protect pope Francis during the visit, which comes after a spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks raised fears for the Catholic leader’s safety.

The 84-year-old, who said he would make the first-ever papal visit to Iraq as a “pilgrim of peace,” will also meet Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

The four-day journey is the pope’s first abroad since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics saying he felt “caged” inside the Vatican.

Iraq was estimated to have nearly 1.5 million Christians prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Now, church officials estimate only a few hundred thousand, or even fewer, remain with Iraq’s borders.