Head of Iraq Chaldean Church on Pope Francis visit

A top Iraqi Christian leader said Pope visit will encourage Christians in exile to persevere and rebuild trust with other Iraqis, the head of Chaldean Church Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako told The Associated Press.

If Iraqis do not reconcile and forgive each other, Christian communities will vanish, he said.

Pope Francis is set to break a 15-month hiatus from international travel with what is sure to be a historic visit to Iraq.

The Vatican released the itinerary of Francis' March 5-8 visit to Iraq, his first foreign trip since being grounded for 16 months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis is expected to visit Baghdad, Ur, a city linked to the Old Testament figure of Abraham, as well as Najaf, Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh in the Nineveh plains.

The 84-year-old pontiff, who has been vaccinated against COVID-19, apparently intends to go ahead with the trip despite the pandemic and lingering security concerns.

Francis' main reason for making the first-ever papal trip to Iraq is to encourage the country's Christians, who faced decades of discrimination by Iraq's Muslims before being persecuted by the Islamic State group starting in 2014.

Iraqi Christians see the papal historic visit as a massage of hope, reconciliation, coexistence, and a way forward to rebuild Iraq.

When the Islamic State group blitzed across western Iraq in 2014, thousands of Christians fled, the extremists forced Christians to convert to Islam or pay a special tax, and often confiscated their property.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Christians have frequently been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists.

Many of those who stayed in Iraq were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints.

Christian Communities in Iraq of Assyrians, Armenians, Chaldeans, Protestants, and Yazidis have been directly targeted when the IS group swept across the north and west of the country terrorizing the community and forcing tens of thousands to flee to the western countries, neighboring nations, or the northern Kurdish region.