Commentary: The popeâs Iraq visit will make headlines. Can it make life better for religious minorities?
Federal policemen patrol by a concrete wall placed by Iraqi security forces to surround the Our Lady of Salvation Church during preparations for the Pope s visit in Mar Youssif Church in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021. (AP/Photo/Hadi Mizban)
By Knox Thames | Religion News Service
  | Feb. 26, 2021, 9:22 p.m. | Updated: 9:31 p.m.
When Pope Francis lands in Iraq on March 5 for an unprecedented papal visit to the country, heâll begin three days of high-level religious diplomacy. In Baghdad, he will meet political leaders and Catholic priests and nuns at the site of an al-Qaeda attack in 2010. The next day, he will travel 100 miles south to Najaf to see Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the worldâs leading Shiite spiritual leaders and the center of gravity for religious life in Iraq.
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By Antonio Spadaro, SJ
Accepting the invitation from Baghdad and the local Catholic Church, Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Journey to Iraq from March 5 to 8, 2021, visiting Baghdad, on the plain of Ur, which is linked to the memory of Abraham, the city of Erbil, as well as Mosul and Qaraqosh on the plain of Nineveh. Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, announced this much-desired trip by Francis on December 7. He added that the program of the trip “will take into account the evolution of the global health emergency.”
Not forgetting the Covid-19 pandemic, indeed fully aware of its grip, Francis will make his first trip after a 15-month pause. But that is not the news.
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