Pope Francis to visit Iraqi cathedral burned by Islamic State

By Courtney Mares for CNA

February 8, 2021 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Fr. Georges Jahola in Al-Tahira church in Bakhdida in November 2016, shortly after the town’s liberation. Photo courtesy of Fr. Jahola.

Rome Newsroom, Feb 8, 2021 / 12:10 pm (CNA).- The Great Al-Tahira Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Bakhdida was charred black inside after the Islamic State set it aflame after taking control of the town in 2014. Now the restored cathedral is preparing to welcome Pope Francis during his trip to Iraq next month.

Pope Francis is set to be the first pope to visit Iraq. His four-day trip to the country March 5-8 will include stops in Baghdad, Mosul, and Bakhdida (also known as Qaraqosh).

The cathedral that the pope will visit in Bakhdida, served a growing Christian community, until the Islamic State turned the cathedral into an indoor shooting range from 2014-2016.

After the town’s liberation from the Islamic State in 2016, Masses resumed in the damaged cathedral as Christians returned to rebuild their community. Aid to the Church in Need committed to restore completely the cathedral’s fire-damaged interior in late 2019.

“I think it is very important to support this town because it is the biggest symbol of Christianity in Iraq. Until now, we kept it as a Christian city, but we do not know what the future will bring for us,” Fr. Georges Jahola, a parish priest from Bakhdida, told CNA in 2019.

A new Marian statue sculpted by a local Christian artist was placed atop the bell tower of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in January.

Pope Francis is slated to pray the Angelus at this cathedral in the schedule for the papal trip to Iraq published by the Vatican Feb. 8.

The schedule released by the Vatican also confirms that the pope will meet with Ali al-Sistani, leader of Shia Muslims in Iraq, during his visit.

Upon his arrival at Baghdad International Airport, the pope is scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi before visiting Iraqi President Barham Salih at the presidential palace March 5.

The pope will end his first day at the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady
of Salvation in Baghdad, where he will address the local bishops, priests, religious, and other Iraqi Catholics.

On his second day in Iraq, Pope Francis will travel on Iraqi Airways to Najaf to meet with al-Sistani.

The pope will then travel to the plain of Ur in southern Iraq, which the Bible records as the birthplace of Abraham. In Ur, the pope will give a speech at an interreligious gathering March 6 before heading back to Baghdad to offer Mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of Saint Joseph.

Pope Francis will visit Christian communities in the Nineveh Plain on his third day in Iraq. These communities were ravaged by the Islamic State from 2014 to 2016, causing many Christians to flee the region. The pope has repeatedly expressed his closeness to these persecuted Christians.

The pope will first be welcomed at the Erbil Airport March 7 by the religious and civil authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan before traveling to Mosul to pray for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa square.

According to the schedule, the pope will then visit the local Christian community in Bakhdida at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, where he will pray the Angelus.

On his last evening in Iraq, Pope Francis will offer Mass at a stadium in Erbil March 7 before departing from Baghdad International Airport the following morning.

Pope Francis said Feb. 8 that he is looking forward to resuming his apostolic visits. His visit to Iraq will be the pope’s first international trip in over a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“These visits are an important sign of the solicitude of the Successor of Peter for God’s People spread throughout the world and the dialogue of the Holy See with states,” Pope Francis said.

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Pope Francis: Justice and peace commissions offer an ‘indispensable service’

November 17, 2021 Catholic News Agency 1
Pope Francis with Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in the Vatican, Nov. 10, 2017. / L’Osservatore Romano.

Vatican City, Nov 17, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis said on Wednesday that the justice and peace commissions of the world’s bishops’ conferences offer an “indispensable service.”

The pope told a meeting of justice and peace commissions on Nov. 17 that they performed the vital tasks of raising awareness of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine and defending human dignity.

“These commissions carry out an indispensable service in the context of the social pastoral care of the local Churches,” the pope said in his message to the two-day online conference hosted by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

“Indeed, they have the task of spreading and making known the Church’s social doctrine, working actively for the protection of the dignity of the human person and his rights, with a preferential option for the poor and the least.”

“In this way, they contribute to the growth of social, economic and ecological justice, and to the building of peace.”

Conference participants are reflecting on how justice and peace commissions can promote authentic development amid the coronavirus pandemic, drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato si’ and his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti.

The pope recalled that in 1967, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI established the Pontifical Commission “Justitia et Pax,” which John Paul II renamed the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in 1988.

In 2017, Pope Francis absorbed the pontifical council into the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, led by Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson.

The pope welcomed the justice and peace commissions’ focus on his two encyclicals during their Nov. 17-18 meeting.

“Indeed, in every part of the world, integral development, and therefore justice and peace, can be built only through these two paths: care for the common home and fraternity and social friendship,” he said.

“These two paths have their origin in the Gospel of Christ, but they are paths on which we can walk together with many men and women of other Christian confessions, of other religions and even without a specific religious affiliation.”

The pope acknowledged the challenges posed by COVID-19, conflict, and backsliding on human rights.

“The current crisis has revealed numerous contradictions in the economic and political system, while unresolved challenges persist that require the joint efforts of many actors,” he said.

“I urge you, therefore, to address these issues also in collaboration with other ecclesial and civil realities — local, regional, and international — committed to the promotion of justice and peace.”

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1 Comment

  1. Places of prayer and worship are sanctified by the outpouring of spiritual sentiments and emotions of the faithful. Such meaningful sites need to be protected from all harm.

    Reply

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