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Pope Francis' historic visit to northern Iraq to hold prayers at& an ancient church destroyed by ISIL "sends a clear message to the world that harmony.
Persecuted Iraqi Christians look forward to pope’s visit with hope
Anjana Sankar/Dubai
Father Michaeel, the Archbishop Chaldean of Mosul, overseeing the renovation work at his church.
It was 5.30am and the sun was yet to crack through the Mosul’s sky. But in the distance, Father Najeeb Michaeel could clearly see the silhouettes of dozens of men brandishing their Kalashnikovs and charging toward his direction.
The marauding militants of the Daesh group were inching close. They had conquered most part of Iraq by June 2014, and were on a killing-spree.
“On that night, I saw the Daesh militants with my naked eyes. Men clad in black and with a murderous rage”, Father Michaeel, now the Archbishop Chaldean of Mosul, told Khaleej Times over phone from Mosul.
Waiting for a miracle in Iraq
February 26, 2021 Share
Only two days after an extremist attack that saw 14 missiles rain down on Erbil, and in the midst of a new coronavirus surge and lockdown, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Najeeb Michaeel, was optimistic about the upcoming visit of Pope Francis.
“Everyone is very happy about this historic event,” he said of Iraq’s inaugural papal visit, from his home in Ankawa, Erbil’s Christian enclave, which has given refuge to thousands of those displaced by ISIS. A previously planned visit in 2000 by Pope John Paul II to Ur, birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic patriarch who has become a symbol of inter-faith harmony, was foiled by protracted negotiations with the government of Saddam Hussein. In 2020, Pope Francis had to cancel a trip due to security and pandemic concerns.
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On the occasion of the International Day of Human Fraternity, we reminisce with fondness the historic moment two years ago when the first ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula was made. The trip also involved the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. After signing it, Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed Al Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar Mosque in Egypt, together announced “the adoption of a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual co-operation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard .
They exhorted world leaders to spread the culture of tolerance and of living together in peace; to intervene at the earliest opportunity to stop the shedding of innocent blood and bring an end to wars, conflicts, environmental decay and the moral and cultural decline that the world is presently experiencing . That the event happened in the UAE was of particular importance, given the fact that it is one of the few count