Pope Francis toured the once-vibrant Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday to highlight the awful cost of religious fanaticism, demonstrating how the price was blood in that devastated place.
He appeared on a dazzling red carpet regardless of a background of ruins and destruction.
Thousands of Muslims, Christians, and Yazidis, Pope Francis said “were cruelly annihilated by terrorism, and others forcibly displaced or killed.”
He was disgusted by the fact that the “cradle of civilization has been afflicted by so barbarous a blow”.
Pope Francis toured a city reduced to ashes in the struggle with the Islamic State on his third day in Iraq.
On his last full day of visit to promote peace among citizens of different religions, as well as providing help to a Christian community sometimes oppressed after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Pope’s visit to Mosul seemed to refute any notion that his words were mere abstractions.
All about the 84-year-old Pontiff, there were tangible examples of the worst things humans could do to each other.
From there, the Pope proceeded to the ancient city of Ur, historically the place of birth of the Prophet Abraham, commemorated by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It was a day that was intended to express symbols of religious harmony and tolerance.
The Pope, on Sunday, was returning back before sunrise, boarding a helicopter to head to Mosul. From the air, he could see the devastation of what was once Iraq’s third-largest region.