Pope Francis meets Iraqi Catholics where 48 died

Pope Francis met Iraqi Catholic leaders in Baghdad on March 5, in a cathedral where 48 people were martyred during a 2010 terrorist attack.

The meeting with bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and lay catechists took place inside the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation.

The pope spoke to the church leaders on the first day of his historic three-day trip to Iraq, praising them for their faithful witness to Christ amid years of adversity.

“May your witness, matured through adversity and strengthened by the blood of martyrs, be a shining light in Iraq and beyond, in order to proclaim the greatness of the Lord and to make the spirit of this people rejoice in God our Savior,” he said.

Pope Francis was in Iraq March 5-8 on a trip intended to strengthen the hope of the country’s persecuted Christian minority and foster fraternity and interreligious dialogue.

On his flight from Rome to Baghdad, Pope Francis, the first pope in history to visit the Middle Eastern country, called the journey “emblematic” and said “it is a duty to the land that has been martyred for so many years.” 

After landing just before noon local time, he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi at the airport before visiting Iraqi President Barham Salih at the presidential palace, where he addressed civil authorities. 

In the afternoon, Pope Francis met around 100 local Catholic leaders, including Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph Younan and Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphaël Sako, at the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation.

The cathedral, also known as Sayidat al-Nejat, was the site of a 2010 suicide attack by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq.

At an evening Mass on Oct. 31, 2010, six terrorists entered and seized the church, killing two priests and taking more than 100 hostages. During the four-hour attack, the militants massacred the Christians inside the church, firing guns, tossing grenades and detonating explosives strapped to their chests.

Fifty-two people died before Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service stormed the church with the support of U.S. forces.

The attack at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation remains one of the single deadliest assaults against Christians in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003.

The beatification causes of the 48 Catholics who died inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in 2010 advanced from the diocesan phase to the Vatican in October 2019. 

When the cathedral was restored after the attack, a red carpet was placed down the center aisle in memory of the blood shed at the site.  

In his speech in the cathedral on March 5, Pope Francis recalled the men and women who died in the attack more than 10 years ago. 

“We are gathered in this Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, hallowed by the blood of our brothers and sisters who here paid the ultimate price of their fidelity to the Lord and his church,” he said. “May the memory of their sacrifice inspire us to renew our own trust in the power of the cross and its saving message of forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth.”

Remembering all victims of violence and persecution, regardless of religion, he said that the deaths of the 48 servants of God killed in 2010 were “a powerful reminder that inciting war, hateful attitudes, violence or the shedding of blood are incompatible with authentic religious teachings.”

“For Christians are called to bear witness to the love of Christ in every time and place,” he continued. “This is the Gospel that must be proclaimed and embodied in this beloved country as well.”

Pope Francis encouraged Iraqi clerics, religious and lay leaders in the “daunting pastoral challenges” they faced daily. 

“All of you share in the joys and sufferings, the hopes and anxieties of Christ’s faithful,” he said.

Despite the additional difficulties caused by the pandemic, he said that what “must never be locked down or reduced, however, is our apostolic zeal, drawn in your case from ancient roots, from the unbroken presence of the church in these lands since earliest times.”

“Hardships are part of the daily experience of the Iraqi faithful,” the pope acknowledged. 

He thanked the priests and bishops for being close to their people and being peacemakers.

Pope Francis urged them to foster unity and fraternity among the different Christian churches in Iraq.