Francis' travel album to Iraq

Every trip has an album where we keep memories that are engraved in our souls. The historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, the Ur of the Chaldeans, homeland of Abraham, the Nineveh of the prophet Jonah or the Babylon of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with its canals watered by the tears of the Jewish people in exile; also has its album, which shows a way of being Church in the world today.

First photo

Prayer among the ruins of Mosul, where Christians and Muslims gathered. Suffering does not distinguish between religions and ethnicities. All suffered and the pain united them in the same cry. Pope Francis showed a Church that goes out to console not only her children, feeding sectarianism and confrontations between peoples, but that accompanies fragility in its nakedness. The enemy of the Christian minority has not been Islam. Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Yazidis... have had a common enemy: a terrorist and criminal group with non-religious objectives.

Second photo

Francis' meeting with Al-Sistani. The Pope goes barefoot to enter the humble abode of the spiritual leader of Shiite Islam in Najaf, next to the tomb of Imam Ali; Al-Sistani breaks protocol and stands up to welcome him. Two men who savor the taste of simplicity, two leaders who respect each other and open their hearts to each other, and in them two religious traditions that join hands and wish to work together for peace in the world. A Church that is barefoot, abandons prejudices and joins forces in the service of humanity. Was there no signing of a document? No. The great Document on Fraternity was that photo.

Third photo

The interreligious encounter in Ur of the Chaldees. Faith is not an element of division, but of brotherhood. "Authentic religiosity is the worship of God and neighbor." Whoever uses violence in the name of God, profanes his Holy Name, is not a true believer. Christians and Muslims denounced the instrumentalization of religion, and looked together to the stars, like Abraham, trusting in the promise of fraternity. And there was shown the face of a Church that prophesies and defends the sacred value of human life.

Last photo

The meeting was held in the Syro-Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of Salvation, in Baghdad. There, with the image of a carpet made of multi-colored threads that intertwine and give rise to a beautiful composition, he presented us with a Church that appreciates diversity and is willing to contribute its colors to society in order to build fraternity, whose source and origin is in God.