|
2021-03-06 Iraq
|
|
Pope Francis arrives in Baghdad for risky, historic Iraq tour
|
[AlAhram] The Pope's first stop was to meet Iraqi President Barham Salih at the presidential palace, where a red carpet, military band and flock of doves greeted him
Pope Francis
 ...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...
embarked on Friday on the first ever papal visit to Iraq, his riskiest trip since his election in 2013, saying he felt duty-bound to make the "emblematic" visit because the country had suffered so much for so long.
Continued from Page 2
His first stop after his plane touched down at Baghdad International Airport was to meet Iraqi President Barham Salih at the presidential palace, where a red carpet, military band and flock of doves greeted the pontiff.
Iraq has deployed thousands of additional security personnel to protect the 84-year-old pope during the visit, which comes after a spate of rocket and suicide kabooms raised fears for his safety.
A motorcade of dozens of vehicles accompanied Francis out of the airport compound, which has recently come under rocket fire from militia groups.
"I am happy to be making trips again," he said in brief comments to news hounds aboard his plane. The coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
pandemic has prevented Francis from travelling and the Iraq trip is his first outside Italia since November 2019.
"This is an emblematic trip and it is a duty towards a land that has been martyred for so many years," Francis said, before donning a mask and greeting each news hound individually, without shaking hands.
Francis, who normally insists on using simple and small cars on his trips, ...which soothes his ego but drives both Papal and local security teams frantic — about which his ego is completely uninterested... was driven to the palace in a bullet-proof BMW sedan, security officials said.
As he and the president walked together, Francis limped noticeably, indicating that his sciatica may have flared up again.
Give your pain to God as an offering for the souls of the many Christian martyrs whose blood continues to soak into Iraqi soil, your Holiness... The condition forced him to cancel several events earlier this year.
Francis's whirlwind tour will take him by plane, helicopter and possibly armoured car to four cities, including areas that most foreign dignitaries are unable to reach, let alone in such a short space of time.
He will say Mass at a Baghdad church, meet Iraq's top Shi'ite Moslem holy man in the southern city of Najaf and travel north to djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, where the army had to empty the streets for security reasons last year for a visit by Iraq's prime minister.
Mosul is a former stronghold of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
, and churches and other buildings there still bear the scars of conflict.
...having been pillaged, desecrated, and destroyed... VIOLENCE AND HOPE
Since the defeat of the Islamic State bully boyz in 2017, Iraq has seen a greater degree of security, though violence persists, often in the form of rocket attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. targets, and U.S. military action in response.
On Wednesday 10 rockets landed on an airbase that hosts U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces. Hours later, Francis reaffirmed he would travel to Iraq.
Islamic State also remains a threat. In January, a suicide kaboom claimed by the Sunni bad boy group killed 32 people in Baghdad's deadliest such attack for years.
Francis will meet clergy at a Baghdad church where Islamist button men killed more than 50 worshippers in 2010.
...which would have been Al Qaeda in Iraq or some similar group, as ISIS had not yet been invented. Violence against Iraq's minority religious groups, especially when a third of the country was being run by Islamic State, has reduced its ancient Christian community to a fifth of its once 1.5 million people.
The pontiff will also visit Ur, birthplace of the prophet Abraham, who is revered by Christians, Moslems and Jews, and meet Iraq's revered top Shi'ite Moslem holy man, 90-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The meeting with Sistani, who wields great influence over Iraq's Shi'ite majority and in the country's politics,
...but not, apparently, over Iran’s Shiite ayatollahs... will be the first by a pope.
Some Shi'ite bad boy groups have opposed the pope's visit, framing it as Western interference in Iraq's affairs, but many Iraqis hope that it can help foster a fresh view of Iraq.
"It might not change much on the ground, but at least if the pope visits, people will see our country in a different light, not just bombs and war," said Ali Hassan, a 30-year-old Baghdad resident picking up relatives at the airport.
That depends on what happens while he is there, one imagines. 
|
Posted by trailing wife 2021-03-06 00:00||
||
Front Page|| [14 views ]
Top
File under: Govt of Iraq
|
|
Posted by Chris 2021-03-06 09:56||
2021-03-06 09:56||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Clem 2021-03-06 10:22||
2021-03-06 10:22||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Woodrow Darling of the Bunions7611 2021-03-06 10:44||
2021-03-06 10:44||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Vespasian Hatrack6194 2021-03-06 10:46||
2021-03-06 10:46||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Mercutio 2021-03-06 11:17||
2021-03-06 11:17||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by jpal 2021-03-06 13:03||
2021-03-06 13:03||
Front Page
Top
|
|
02:02 Grom the Reflective
02:01 Grom the Reflective
01:49 NN2N1
01:45 NN2N1
01:44 NN2N1
01:40 NN2N1
01:36 NN2N1
01:34 Grom the Reflective
01:32 crazyhorse
01:07 Grom the Reflective
00:28 Angealing+B.+Hayes4677
|
