Inside Story

How significant is Pope Francis’s visit to Iraq?

The pope has called for an end to acts of violence, extremism and intolerance.

Pope Francis is the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to travel to Iraq.

At the start of his landmark three-day trip, the Catholic leader appealed for common ground among religious groups.

He was speaking at a meeting between people of different faiths in the ancient city of Ur, a significant site for Christians, Muslims and Jews.

Earlier, he met Iraq’s top Shia Muslim leader Ali al-Sistani in Najaf.

The pope’s visit is meant to spotlight the heavy toll that years of war, repression and instability have taken on the country’s now-diminished Christian communities.

Can this visit appease the concerns of Iraq’s Christians?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Father Karam Shamasha – Chaldean Catholic priest

Christopher Lamb – Rome correspondent for The Tablet and author of The Outsider: Pope Francis and his Battle to Reform the Church

Ahmed Rushdi – director of the think-tank The House of Iraqi Expertise Foundation