The first ever visit to Iraq by a pope could have ended disastrously, but a foiled assassination plot has allowed Pope Francis to write about the event in retrospect.
“Almost everyone advised me against that trip,” he wrote in his autobiography, reflecting on a 2021 visit to Mosul, Iraq, where a tip from British intelligence caused a stir among authorities and Vatican military police warned of two threats.
A would-be suicide bomber strapped with explosives was heading into the city with the intention of detonating himself. according to Politico. The second, the pope said, was a van containing explosives that had rushed toward the same area with “the same intention.”
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Pope Francis delivers his speech after his traditional general audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Despite the risk, the visit went ahead, with Francis insisting he would tour the region for its biblical, historical value and meet the local Christian population.
Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief of The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, wrote at the time that Francis had decided to embark on the four-day trip to “strengthen the historical and natural place of Christians in Iraq and the Arab world.”
Mosul had been captured by Islamic State in 2014, but Iraqi forces drove out the extremists three years later, Politico reported, adding that evidence of the conflict and occupation lingered in “much of the city, including its centuries-old Catholic churches.” which were left in ruins.
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A member of the Iraqi armed forces walks past a mural depicting Pope Francis waving next to an Iraqi national flag drawn on a blast wall outside the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Deliverance in the Karrada district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on 1 March 2021, amid preparations for the Pope’s visit. (SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Pope Francis later asked his security officer what happened to the bomb threats when he heard they had been neutralized.
“The commander replied laconically: ‘They are no longer there. The Iraqi police had intercepted them and detonated them,'” he wrote, reflecting on the moment.
The autobiography, titled ‘Hope’, is set to hit shelves next month, but Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published excerpts from the writings on Tuesday, reports say.
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