VATICAN CITY (CNS) \u2014 Pope Francis summarized his \u201cpilgrimage of faith and penitence\u201d to Iraq in a prayer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf God is the God of life \u2014 for so he is \u2014 then it is wrong for us to kill our brothers and sisters in his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf God is the God of peace \u2014 for so he is \u2014 then it is wrong for us to wage war in his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf God is the God of love \u2014 for so he is \u2014 then it is wrong for us to hate our brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pope Francis\u2019 visit began on 5 March in Baghdad, where he met with government officials in the opulent presidential palace, once home to Saddam Hussein and then the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition forces that invaded the country in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the dictates of protocol handled in less than three hours, the pope moved to the heart of his pilgrimage: visiting places of faith and suffering, bowing in tribute to the innocents who died and embracing survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He put the blame for the death and destruction squarely on the sinful human inclination to define some people as \u201cus\u201d and others as \u201cthem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That inclination, which all believers must resist, explains why he told government officials and civic leaders on 5 March, \u201cI come as a penitent, asking forgiveness of heaven and my brothers and sisters for so much destruction and cruelty. I come as a pilgrim of peace in the name of Christ, the prince of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the trip, Pope Francis did not mention the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the government. And, while he spoke of \u201cterrorism\u201d and war in reference to the 2014-2017 destruction wrought by Islamic State militants, he did not name the group until he was on the plane returning to Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even then, his point was not to condemn IS, but to honor the Christians, Yazidis and Muslims who resisted their efforts to set up a twisted, narrow vision of an Islamic caliphate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe life of Christians in Iraq is a difficult life, but not just the life of Christians. I just talked about the Yazidis and other religions that did not submit to the power of Daesh,\u201d he told reporters, using the militants\u2019 Arabic-language acronym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resistance, he said, \u201cgave them a very great strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strength to move forward, to rebuild and to restore relationships of kinship and respect across religious and ethnic boundaries was a constant refrain during Pope Francis\u2019 trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The refrain was loudest amid ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With representatives of Muslim, Christian, Yazidi, Mandaean and other religious communities, Pope Francis made a pilgrimage on 6 March to Ur, an archaeological dig on a dusty desert plain about 10 miles from modern-day Nasiriyah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There, at the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, the first person to believe in the one God and father of all, the pope called all believers to demonstrate their faith by treating one another as the brothers and sisters they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom this place, where faith was born, from the land of our father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: They are betrayals of religion,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The journey of peace, he said, begins with \u201cthe decision not to have enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing in Mosul on 7 March, amid the ruins of four churches that Islamic State fighters had turned to a massive pile of rubble, Pope Francis did not name an enemy but pointed to the \u201ctragic consequences of war and hostility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Islamic State gone and work underway to restore Mosul\u2019s damaged churches and mosques, Pope Francis proclaimed that today \u201cwe reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace more powerful than war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis conviction speaks with greater eloquence than the passing voices of hatred and violence,\u201d he said, \u201cand it can never be silenced by the blood spilled by those who pervert the name of God to pursue paths of destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Returning to Rome, he told reporters he had seen photos of the site beforehand but was not prepared for the reality of being there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI stopped in front of the destroyed church and I just didn\u2019t have any words. It is something you cannot believe, you can\u2019t believe it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is just unbelievable our human cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first evening of the trip, the pope had met the Iraqi bishops and representatives of the country\u2019s priests and religious in the restored Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance, sometimes referred to as Our Lady of Salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a church, he said, \u201challowed by the blood of our brothers and sisters\u201d murdered in a terrorist attack that shook the world. Forty-eight members of the church, including two priests and a 3-year-old child, died on 31 October 2010, when militants belonging to a group linked to al-Qaida interrupted a service, detonating explosives and shooting people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The memory of Iraq\u2019s Christian martyrs, he said, must \u201cinspire us to renew our own trust in the power of the cross and its saving message of forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChristians are called to bear witness to the love of Christ in every time and place,\u201d the pope told the Catholic leaders. \u201cThis is the Gospel that must be proclaimed and embodied in this beloved country as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bells pealed in Qaraqosh on 7 March to welcome the pope to another Syriac Catholic parish, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, desecrated during its use as a base by Islamic State fighters, who turned the courtyard into a shooting range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While much of the town still needs to be rebuilt, Pope Francis said the presence of the jubilant crowds inside and outside the church \u201cshows that terrorism and death never have the last word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe last word belongs to God and to his Son, the conqueror of sin and death,\u201d the pope said. \u201cEven amid the ravages of terrorism and war, we can see, with the eyes of faith, the triumph of life over death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Muslim and Yazidi guests joining Catholics in the church, Pope Francis told the people that \u201cthis is the time to restore not just buildings but also the bonds of community that unite communities and families, the young and the old together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"