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Iraq welcomes Pope 2021 visit as 'message of peace' Baghdad, Dec 7 (AFP) Dec 07, 2020 Pope Francis's visit to Iraq in March will be a "historic event", the government in Baghdad said after the Vatican announced Monday the pontiff's first trip since the coronavirus pandemic. "It symbolises a message of peace to Iraq and the whole region," the foreign ministry said in a statement. President Barham Saleh officially invited Pope Francis to visit Iraq in July 2019, hoping it would help the country "heal" after years of strife. A few hundred thousand Christians are left in Iraq following sectarian warfare after the 2003 US-led invasion and the Islamic State group's sweep through a third of the country in 2014.
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