Pope Francis is due this Friday to depart for an apostolic visit to Iraq, a visit that has been raising some questions in recent days due to a rise in COVID-19 infections in that country. The programme for the visit (that will in due course be populated by texts and video of addresses) can be found at the Vatican website: Visit to Iraq. France-24 has a useful report here: Francis prepares first-ever papal visit to Iraq. Aid to the Church in Need have a report that is a preview of the visit: Respect for Christians will grow.
Pope Francis' visit includes events typical of Papal overseas visits - meetings with civil authorities and representatives of civil society, with clergy and religious and with principal leaders of other religions. What perhaps makes this visit unique is a visit to the Plains of Ur, from where Abraham departed to travel to the promised land. Somewhat akin to the testimony of the Holy Father to the Resurrection of the Lord at the start of the Easter Mass in St Peter's Square this visit, by the very fact of its taking place, provides an opportunity for a unique testimony to the place occupied by Abraham in the history of salvation that finds its completion in the Christian mystery. That an interreligious meeting is due to take place there reflects the significance of Abraham for both the Jewish faith and for Islam.
More by accident than deliberate intention, I am currently reading Suha Rassam's book Christianity in Iraq (I am reading a second edition - a third edition can be purchased from Gracewing here). For Christians in Europe, the description of regions of northern Iraq as being home to some of the oldest Christian communities lies outside our immediate cultural familiarity; we are more inclined to think of the ancient (but much younger) shrines of Europe instead. Suha Rassam's book is giving me a useful understanding of the different Christian denominations that have, at different times, lived in Iraq generally and in the northern regions in particular. I hope as I finish reading the book that I will gain a fuller appreciation of the news reporting of events in northern Iraq, and of the communities that Pope Francis will, God willing, visit in the next few days.
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