Pope Francis wishes to travel to
Iraq in 2020
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| People at Mass at St.THomas of Syriac, a Catholic Church in the old city of Mosul, Iraq |
Receiving members of the 92nd Plenary Session of ROACO, the
Reunion of Aid Agencies that provides aid to the Oriental Catholic Churches,
Pope Francis reveals it is his wish to travel to Iraq in the coming year.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis said on Monday he "thinks
constantly of Iraq", where he wishes to travel in the coming year.
He was addressing representatives of ROACO, the ‘Reunion of
Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches.’
As he listed countries that fall within the Reunion’s reach
and where the faithful continue to suffer, - including Syria, Ukraine and the
Holy Land – the Pope focused on Iraq.
He said he hopes it is able to build a peaceful future based
on the “shared pursuit of the common good on the part of all elements of
society, including the religious”, without falling back into “hostilities
sparked by the simmering conflicts of the regional powers”.
Iraq's small Christian population of several hundred
thousand suffered persecution and hardship when so-called Islamic State took
control of large swathes of the country, but have recovered freedoms since the
jihadists were pushed out. The country is home to many different eastern rite
churches, both Catholic and Orthodox. It would be a first ever apostolic visit
to the nation.
Thanking the members of the ROACO committee, which unites
funding agencies from various countries around the world for the sake of
providing assistance in different areas of life to the clergy and to the
faithful of the Oriental Churches, ROACO, he said, “attends to the plea
of all those, who in these years have been robbed of hope”.
Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Holy Land
Reflecting briefly on the particular situations in some of
the countries and regions ROACO reaches, the Pope expressed sorrow for “the
dramatic situation in Syria and the dark clouds that seem to
be gathering above it in some yet unstable areas, where the risk of an even
greater humanitarian crisis remains high”.
“Nor,” he said, “do I forget Ukraine, in the
hope that its people can know peace.”
Then he expressed his trust in a Holy Land initiative
in which, he said, “the Christian communities of the status quo are
working side-by-side” with the cooperation of local and international actors
Migrants and refugees
Pope Francis also highlighted the plight of migrants and refugees saying,
“We hear the plea of persons in flight, crowded on boats in search of hope, not
knowing which ports will welcome them, in a Europe that opens its ports to
ships that will load sophisticated and costly weapons capable of producing
forms of destruction that do not spare even children”.
Hope and consolation
The Pope did not neglect to underscore voices of hope and
consolation that he said “are the echoes of that tireless charitable outreach
that has been made possible also thanks to each of you and the agencies that
you represent”.
He said that by nourishing hope for the coming generations,
we help young people “to grow in humanity, freed of forms of
ideological colonization and with open hearts and minds”.
He noted that this year, the young people of Ethiopia and Eritrea –
following the greatly desired peace between the two countries – abandoned their
weapons and are living in harmony.
The Pope concluded asking those present to help him spread
the message of fraternity contained in the Abu Dhabi Document and
to continue to preserve those realities that, he said, have been practicing its
message for many years now.
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