Pope Francis is currently on a state visit to Iraq
OpenLife Nigeria reports that Pope Francis has arrived Baghdad in an Alitalia airline which touched down at the Ayn al Asad military base in Baghdad on Friday for a three-day visit to Iraq.
The Pope was received by the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, by a small coloured guard that lined the two sides of the stretched red carpet at the airport.
His Alitalia flight was accompanied by U.S. aircraft from the Ayn al Asad military base after entering Iraqi airspace.
The Pope defiled all warnings of travel especially at this pandemic period.
Information has it that he insisted saying“I am happy to travel again,” the pope said.
By choosing Iraq as his first destination since the pandemic began, Francis waded directly into the issues of war and peace, and poverty and religious strife, in an ancient biblical land.
“This trip is emblematic,” he said, calling it “a duty to a land martyred for many years.”
Historically, this is the first time a Catholic Pontiff would be visiting Iraq despite the country’s historical antecedent with Christianity.
During their tenure, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had to scuttle plans to visit the remaining Christians in the country which has been reduced to about 500,000 from several millions they were before war ravaged the country.
Pope Francis was driven out of the airport in a black BMW. He waved to group of faithful behind on the side of the highway.
He is expected to visit battle-scarred churches and desert pilgrimage sites.
Pope Francis, an Argentine and originally named Jorge Mario Bergoglio, became Pope Francis on March 13, 2013 as the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
He is 84 years old having been born on 17 December 1936 and attended Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy.
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