Pope Francis prays for ’victims of war’ in Iraq’s Mosul

Pope Francis prayed on March 7 for "victims of war" outside a centuries-old church in Iraq's Mosul, where the ISIL group ravaged one of the world's oldest Christian communities until the jihadists' defeat three years ago.

With the crumbling stone walls of the Al-Tahera (Immaculate Conception) Church behind him, Pope Francis made a plea for Christians in Iraq and the Middle East to stay in their homelands.

The 84-year-old pontiff said the "tragic" exodus of Christians from war-scarred Iraq and the wider region "does incalculable harm not just to the individuals and communities concerned, but also to the society they leave behind".

The ISIL onslaught forced hundreds of thousands of Christians in northern Iraq's Nineveh province to flee. Iraq's Christian population has shrunk to fewer than 400,000 from around 1.5 million before the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

The faithful had gathered on Sunday in the courtyard of the Al-Tahera Church, whose roof collapsed during fighting against ISIL in 2017.

It is one of the oldest of at least 14 churches in Nineveh province that were destroyed by ISIL.

Boutros Chito, a Catholic priest in Mosul, said the pope's visit could change the way people think about his city, the ancient center of which still lies in ruins.

"Pope Francis will announce to the whole world that we are the people of peace, a civilization of love," Chito told AFP.

The heaviest deployment of security forces yet has been mobilized to protect Francis on what is perhaps the riskiest day of his historic trip to Iraq, where state forces are still hunting ISIL sleeper cells.

Pope Francis's trip to Iraq as a "pilgrim of peace" aims to reassure the country's dwindling Christian community and to expand his...