Hours ago, Pope Francis said that he will pay a visit to Iraq next month even if it means many Iraqi Christians won't be able to see him in person because of COVID-19 restrictions.
"I am the pastor of people who are suffering," he told Catholic New Service (CNS), the news outlet of the U.S. Bishops Conference.
Francis said it was important that "they will see the pope is there in their country" even if most would see him only on television because of social distancing requirements.
The 84-year-old pope intended to go ahead with the March 5-8 trip unless there is a serious new wave of coronavirus infection there.
Earlier last week, the patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church said the pope would meet the country top Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
According to Reuters, the visit will take place amid deteriorating security in some parts of Iraq and after the first big suicide bombing in Baghdad for three years.
Iraq houses Christian communities for centuries. Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled sectarian violence after the fall of Saddam Hussein or were driven out when ISIS captured much of the north in 2014.
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