"Pope Francis arrived in Baghdad Friday for a three-day visit to war-torn
Iraq. In his first international trip since the pandemic began.....
world to see. "May the clash of arms be silenced!" exhorted Francis.
bulletproof car upon landing in Baghdad. At various points on his route
to the presidential palace there were also a variety of tanks and
armored vehicles keeping watch, and several Boeing tiltrotor Osprey
aircraft were seen flying above the papal convoy.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, told reporters this week that the pope has come to Iraq as an "act of love."
"I come among you as a pilgrim of peace, to repeat 'you are
all brothers,'" Francis said in a video message to the Iraqi people ahead of his visit. "I come as a pilgrim of peace in search of fraternity, animated by the desire to pray together and walk together, also with brothers and sisters of other religious traditions."
Much of Francis' visit will be televised for Iraqi people and the
Something that won't be televised will likely be the most critical meeting of the trip: When Francis meets Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a top Shiite leader. Francis is expected to meet with the religious leader in the holy city of Najaf for about 30 minutes on Saturday.
For the first known time in his eight-year papacy, Francis used a
Francis expected to visit the southern Iraqi city of Ur on Saturday,
where the father of all three Abrahamic faiths is believed to have been
born.
Most Iraqi outlets were covering the visit closely and the hashtag #welcomePopeFrancis was trending in Arabic." ZeroHedge/VaticanNews
