Pope Francis preaches tolerance on a visit to Ur in Iraq

Pope Francis visits Iraq: Pope Francis condemned violent religious extremism on Saturday. During an interfaith prayer service at the site of the ancient city of Ur, where the prophet Abraham is thought to have been born.

Francis went to the ruins of Ur in southern Iraq to strengthen his message of tolerance and interreligious brotherhood. During the first papal visit to Iraq, a country torn by religious and ethnic divisions.

"We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion," he told the congregation. It included members of religious minorities persecuted under the Islamic State group's three-year rule over much of northern Iraq.

The pope urged Iraqi Muslim and Christian religious leaders to put aside animosities and work together for peace and unity.

"This is true religiosity: worshiping God and loving our neighbor," he said at the gathering.

Earlier in the day, Pope Francis held a historic meeting with Iraq's top Shiite cleric, the great Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, making a powerful appeal for coexistence in a country torn apart by sectarianism and violence.

Their meeting in the holy city of Najaf was the first time a pope had met such an elderly Shia cleric.

After the meeting, Sistani, one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, invited world religious leaders to hold great powers to give an account and so that wisdom and common sense prevail over war.

Pope Francis visits Iraq: The program

The pope's program in Iraq includes visits to the cities of Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Mosul, Qaraqosh and Erbil. He will travel about 1.445 km in a country where tensions persist. Where more recently the Covid-19 plague has led to a record number of infections.
Papa Francesco he will travel in an armored car among the usual crowds that throng to catch a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church. Sometimes he will be required to travel by helicopter or plane over areas where jihadists belonging to the Islamic State group are still present.
Work began on Friday with a speech to Iraqi leaders in Baghdad. Addressing the economic and security difficulties facing the 40 million Iraqi people. The pope also discusses the persecution of the country's Christian minority.

On Saturday it was hosted in the holy city of Najaf by the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest authority for many Shiites in Iraq and around the world.
The pope also made a trip to the ancient city of Ur, which according to the Bible is the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, a figure common to the three monotheistic religions. There he prayed with Muslims, Yazidis and Sanaesi (a pre-Christian monotheistic religion).
Francis will continue his journey on Sunday in the province of Nineveh, in northern Iraq, the cradle of Iraqi Christians. He will then head to Mosul and Qaraqoch, two cities marked by the destruction of Islamic extremists.
The pontiff will conclude his tour by presiding on Sunday an outdoor mass in the presence of thousands of Christians in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. This Kurdish Muslim stronghold has offered refuge to hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis and Muslims who fled the atrocities of the Islamic State group.