Pope Francis meets Christians in church torched by ISIS in Iraq

QARAQOSH, IRAQ (AFP, REUTERS) - Pope Francis met Christians on Sunday (March 7) in an ancient church torched by the ISIS terror group when it swept into the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh in 2014.

After the militants were ousted from the town in 2016, the Al-Tahera (Immaculate Conception) Church's imposing marble floors and columns were restored and the faithful gathered there on Sunday to welcome the pontiff.

Earlier, hundreds of residents dressed in colourful traditional robes and waving olive branches, flags and balloons lined the streets to wait for the pope.

Pope Francis' visit was part of a four-day tour of the country that aims to boost the morale of the country's small Christian communities.

Since the ISIS militants were driven out in 2017, families have slowly returned to Qaraqosh and rebuilt homes that were left in ruins by the extremist group and the fighting that ousted them.

"I can't describe my happiness, it's a historic event that won't be repeated," said Ms Yosra Mubarak, 33, who was three months pregnant when she left her home seven years ago with her husband and son, fleeing the violence.

"It was a very difficult journey, we fled with only the clothes we're wearing...there was nothing left (when we returned), but our only dream was to come back and here we are and the pope is coming," she said, beaming.

Ms Mubarak now has three children, all of whom were wearing the traditional Qaraqosh clothes hand-knitted by her mother.

Speakers placed around the church blasted poems and hymns in Assyrian, one of which said: "Hello hello in our town Pope Francis." Ululations of joy rang out in the pauses between the songs. Nuns and priests danced.

The excitement had been building far ahead of the pope's arrival. Some in the crowd said they had been there for hours.

Iraq's Christian population of 1.5 million some 20 years ago now stands at 300,000, and many of those want to leave because they see few prospects in a country where Shi'ite militias and sleeper militant cells still pose a threat. Iraq has been torn by war since the US invasion of 2003 and the Islamist militant violence that followed.

The roads in and around Qaraqosh were sprinkled with checkpoints and armed officers.

"We are very happy, but the moment he leaves everything will go back to normal. We lived through very three very difficult years. We left our homes with just our clothes. I didn't even take my money," said Ms Samia Marzina, 52, holding two balloons emblazoned with the pope's face.

Traces of burning inside Qaraqosh's church have been were left untouched, a reminder of the fragility of the Christian community in Iraq.

Earlier in the day, Muslim and Christian residents of Mosul told Pope Francis of their lives under the brutal rule of the ISIS militant group as the pontiff blessed their vow to rise up from ashes, telling them that "fraternity is more durable than fratricide".

Pope Francis flew into Mosul by helicopter to encourage the binding of sectarian wounds and to pray for the dead of any religion.

The 84-year-old pope walked past ruins of houses and churches to a square that was once the thriving centre of the old town. The northern city was occupied from 2014 to 2017 by ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

"Together we say no to fundamentalism. No to sectarianism and no to corruption," the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul Najeeb Michaeel told the pope.

Pope Francis sat on a white chair surrounded by skeletons of buildings and dangling staircases.

Mosul's Old City is home to ancient churches and mosques that were destroyed in 2017 during the bloody battle by Iraqi forces and an international military coalition to drive out the ISIS.

Corruption and infighting among Iraqi politicians still slow efforts to rebuild Mosul and large parts of the city remain in ruins.

The pope, visibly moved by the devastation around him, prayed for all of Mosul's dead.

"How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow, with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people - Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and others - forcibly displaced or killed," he said.

"Today, however, we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace more powerful than war," the pope said.

In an apparent direct reference to ISIS, he said hope could never be "silenced by the blood spilled by those who pervert the name of God to pursue paths of destruction".

He then read a prayer repeating one of the main themes of his trip, the first by a pope to Iraq, that it is always wrong to hate, kill or wage war in God's name.

Fighters of ISIS, a Sunni militant group that tried to establish a caliphate across the region, ravaged northern Iraq from 2014-2017, killing Christians as well as Muslims who opposed them.

Father Raid Adel Kallo, pastor of the destroyed Church of the Annunciation, told how in 2014 he left with 500 Christian families and how fewer than 70 families are present now.

"The majority have emigrated and are afraid to return," he said. "But I live here, with two million Muslims who call me father and I am living my mission with them," he added, telling the pope of a committee of Mosul families who promote peaceful coexistence among Muslims and Christians.

The pope, blanketed in intense security on his trip to Iraq, has stressed religious tolerance.

On Saturday, he held a historic meeting with Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric and visited the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, condemning violence in the name of God as "the greatest blasphemy".

On Sunday, the Pope said Mass in Erbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, where thousands of people packed a stadium.

"This visit gives us hope and courage, it's as if we're celebrating a new life," said Frdos Zora, a nun at the stadium Mass.

At the end of the Mass, the last official event before the Pope returns to Rome on Monday, he told the crowd, "Iraq will always remain with me, in my heart".

He closed by saying: "Salam, salam, salam", which means peace, peace, peace in Arabic.