Vatican: Pope to visit Iraq in March, pandemic permitting

The Vatican says Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to Iraq in March, pandemic conditions permitting

Vatican Pope (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to Iraq in March, pandemic conditions permitting, the Vatican said Monday, in announcing what would be the pontiff's first trip aboard in more than a year.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni on Monday said Francis will make the March 5-8 visit, with stops in Baghdad and the “plains of Ur, linked to the memory of Abraham,” the Biblical patriarch, as well as to the cities of Irbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh.

Bruni said the trip’s schedule will be announced later and will take into consideration “the evolution of the worldwide health emergency″ that is the COVID-19 pandemic.

It would be the first trip abroad for Francis since November 2019, when he visited Thailand and Japan. Francis turns 84 on Dec. 17.

The Vatican said Francis had accepted invitations from the Iraqi government from the local Catholic church.