How significant is Pope Francis’s visit to Iraq?

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