Never before has a Pope been in the land of Abraham.

Providence willed that this should happen now, as a sign of hope, after years of war and terrorism, and during a severe pandemic.

After this Visit, my soul is filled with gratitude—gratitude to God and to all those who made it possible: to the President of the Republic and the Government of Iraq; to the country's Patriarchs and Bishops, together to all the ministers and members of the faithful of the respective Churches; to the religious Authorities, beginning with the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani, with whom I had an unforgettable meeting in his residence in Najaf.

I strongly felt a penitential sense regarding this pilgrimage: I could not draw near to that tortured people, to that martyr-Church, without taking upon myself, in the name of the Catholic Church, the cross they have been carrying for years; a huge cross, like the one placed at the entrance of Qaraqosh.

I felt it particularly seeing the wounds still open from the destruction, and even more so when meeting and hearing the testimony of those who survived the violence, persecution, exile…

And at the same time, I saw around me the joy of welcoming Christ's messenger; I saw the hope of being open to a horizon of peace and fraternity, summed up in Jesus's words that were the motto of the Visit: "You are all brothers" (Mt23:8).

I found this hope in the discourse of the President of the Republic.

I discovered it again in the many greetings and testimonies, in the hymns and gestures of the people.

I read it on the luminous faces of the young people and in the vivacious eyes of the elderly.

People stood waiting for the Pope for 5 hours, even women with children in their arms.

They waited and there was hope in their eyes.

The Iraqi people have the right to live in peace; they have the right to rediscover the dignity that belongs to them.

Their religious and cultural roots go back thousands of years: Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization.

Historically, Baghdad is a city of primary importance.

For centuries, it housed the richest library in the world. And what destroyed it?

War.

War is always that monster that transforms itself with the change of epochs and continues to devour humanity.

But the response to war is not another war; the response to weapons is not other weapons.

And I asked myself: who was selling the weapons to the terrorists? Who sells weapons today to the terrorists—which are causing massacres in other areas, let's think of Africa, for example? It is a question that I would like someone to answer.

The response is not war, but the response is fraternity.

This is the challenge not only for Iraq.

It is the challenge for many regions in conflict and, ultimately, the challenge for the entire world is fraternity.

Will we be capable of creating fraternity among us?

Of building a culture of brothers and sisters?

Or will we continue the logic Cain began: war.

Brothers and sisters. Fraternity.

For this reason, we met and we prayed with Christians and Muslims, with representatives of other religions, in Ur, where Abraham received God's call about four thousand years ago.

Abraham is our father in the faith because he listened to God's voice that promised him a descendant.

He left everything and departed.

God is faithful to His promises and guides our steps toward peace still today.

He guides the steps of those who journey on Earth with their gaze turned toward Heaven.

And in Ur—standing together under those luminous heavens, the same heavens that our father Abraham saw, we, his descendants—the phrase you are all brothers and sisters seemed to resound once again.

A message of fraternity came from the ecclesial encounter in the Syriac-Catholic Cathedral of Baghdad, where 48 people, among them two priests, were killed during Mass in 2010.

The Church in Iraq is a martyr-Church.

And in that church that bears an inscription in stone the memory of those martyrs, joy resounded in that encounter.

My amazement at being in their midst mingled with their joy at having the Pope among them.

We launched a message of fraternity from Mosul and from Qaraqosh, along the Tigris River, near the ruins of ancient Nineveh.

The ISIS occupation caused thousands and thousands of inhabitants to flee, among them many Christians of a variety of confessions and other persecuted minorities, especially the Yazidi.

The ancient identity of these cities has been ruined. Now they are trying hard to rebuild.

The Muslims are inviting the Christians to return and together they are restoring churches and mosques.

Fraternity is there.

And, please, let us continue to pray for them, our sorely tried brothers and sisters, so they might have the strength to start over.

And thinking of the many Iraqis who have emigrated, I want to say to them: you have left everything, like Abraham; like him, keep the faith and hope.

Be weavers of friendship and of fraternity wherever you are.

And if you can, return.

A message of fraternity came from the two Eucharistic Celebrations: the one in Baghdad, in the Chaldean Rite, and the one in Erbil, the city in which I was received by the President of the region and its Prime Minister, the Authorities—whom I thank a lot for having come to welcome me—and I was also welcomed by the people.

Abraham's hope, and that of his descendants, is fulfilled in the mystery we celebrated, in Jesus, the Son that God the Father did not spare, but gave for everyone's salvation: through His death and resurrection, He opened the way to the promised land, to that new life where tears are dried, wounds are healed, brothers and sisters are reconciled.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us praise God for this historic Visit and let us continue to pray for that land and for the Middle East.

In Iraq, despite the roar of destruction and weapons, the palm, a symbol of the country and of its hope, has continued to grow and bear fruit.

So it is for fraternity: like the fruit of the palm, it does not make noise, but the palm is fruitful and grows.

May God, who is peace, grant a future of fraternity to Iraq, the Middle East and the entire world!

• Pope Francis delivered this message the Wednesday, 10 March. (Thursday NZ time)

Bishop Angaelos says he grieves for those who have died and for those who mourn them.

He also grieves for the young men who see it as "not only justifiable, but glorious, to take the lives of others".

God loves them - but he placed them on earth for greater things than terrorism, he says.

Recent terrorist attacks have killed dozens of people in England, Egypt and the Philippines.

In a statement that directly addresses terrorists, Angaelos says:

"You are loved. The violent and deadly crimes you perpetrate are abhorrent and detestable, but YOU are loved.

You are loved by God, your Creator, for He created you in His Image and according to His Likeness, and placed you on this earth for much greater things, according to His plan for all humankind.

You are loved by me and millions like me, not because of what you do, but what you are capable of as that wonderful creation of God, Who has created us with a shared humanity.

You are loved by me and millions like me because I, and we, believe in transformation."

Angaelos went on to explain how "transformation" can change anyone's life, pointing out that even the lives of some of those who persecuted Jesus were changed by his death and resurrection.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• Fox News
• Image: Urban Christian News

In his address on Wednesday the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, stressed that of those few individuals on a security watch list none are representative of New Zealand's Muslim community as a whole.

Prime Minister Key also stressed that as well as making a valuable contribution to our nation, Muslim New Zealanders are as distressed by the actions of terrorists and their violent messages as anyone else.

The Human Rights Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy has urged New Zealanders to stand alongside Muslim Kiwis in peace and compassion.

"The Human Rights Commission is concerned for the wellbeing of vulnerable Muslim Kiwis, some of whom are being wrongly targeted and blamed for things they are not responsible for and have vehemently opposed," she said.

"Those people terrifying other New Zealanders are bringing the hatred we loathe into our streets and suburbs."

"It is shameful New Zealand women and children do not feel safe walking to and from school."

"Muslim New Zealanders have publicly and unreservedly rejected violent extremism. On behalf of Kiwi Muslims, the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand publicly and unreservedly rejected ISIS and called for justice, dignity and safety," said Dame Susan.

"If New Zealanders want peace overseas - we need to start right here at home, human rights begin at home. We mourn the tragic loss of lives in overseas conflicts but we must honour their lives by standing for peace and human rights at all costs."

"When we bring the violence and the hatred we see on our television screens into our communities, when we scream hateful abuse at a woman in a veil and her children: we are the ones creating the terror."

Read Prime Ministers Speech TO NZ INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Source

• The Human Rights Commission
• Image: themuslimtimes.org

Lengthy prison terms are threatened for almost any criticism of the government or Islam.

The new laws are accompanied by a series of related royal decrees which seem to criminalise virtually all dissident thought or expression.

Secular citizens who commit thought crimes are placed in the same category as terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch.

Under a new decree by King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia will jail for up to 20 years anyone who fights in conflicts abroad.

This is an apparent move to deter Saudis from joining rebels in Syria.

But the law also applies to any Saudi citizen or a foreigner residing in the kingdom who "calls for atheist thought in any form or calls into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based".

The laws have been denounced by human rights groups for making no distinction between religious expression and violent extremism.

"Saudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of their policies," said Joe Stork from Human Rights Watch.

"But these recent laws and regulations turn almost any critical expression or independent association into crimes of terrorism," he said.

Human Rights Watch describes the laws as having "serious flaws, including vague and overly broad provisions that allow authorities to criminalise free expression, and the creation of excessive police powers without judicial oversight".

Blogging for Al-Bab, Brian Whitaker wrotes that while the new laws might seem bizarre, "in Saudi terms it does have a certain logic".

"Since the entire system of government is based on Wahhabi interpretations of Islam, non-believers are assumed to be enemies of the Saudi state".

He cites a 2012 WIN/Gallup International poll which found that almost a quarter of people interviewed in Saudi Arabia described themselves as "not religious".

And of those, five per cent declared themselves to be atheists.

Whitaker adds: "Extrapolating that figure on a national scale suggests there around 1.4million atheist terrorists living in Saudi Arabia."

Sources:

• Daily Mail
• Huffington Post
• Image: Colombo Telegraph

Ingrid Loyau-Kennet, who formerly lived in Auckland, told the Daily Telegraph: "I live my life as a Christian. I believe in thinking about others and loving thy neighbour. We all have a duty to look after each other. A whole group of people walking towards those guys would have found it easy to take those weapons out of their hands. But me, on my own, I couldn't."

Mrs Loyau-Kennet was travelling on a bus through Woolwich in south-east London when the bus stopped because of a body on the road and a crashed car.

Thinking there had been a road accident, she immediately got off the bus to help.

A Caribbean woman tending to the man on the ground told her he was dead.

Mrs Loyau-Kennet said: "I took his arm to feel his pulse. There was blood on the pavement where he had been dragged and blood was pouring out of him.

"Suddenly this excited black man came up to me and said: ‘Get away from the body; don't touch it.' I looked up and I could see red hands, a bloodied revolver, bloodied meat cleaver and a butcher's knife. OK, I thought, this is bad."

As she waited for the police to arrive, Mrs Loyau-Kennett tried to reason with the two men.

"We want to start a war," one of them told her. "I will shoot the police when they come. I want to kill them." Looking them straight in the eye, she replied calmly: "That's not going to happen. I am here and I am going to listen to you."

Mrs Loyau-Kennet remained with the soldier, later identified as Drummer Lee Rigby, despite an onlooker advising her to move away.

She said: "I told her I wasn't leaving; as long as I don't see professionals here, I'm staying. He knows me; he knows I'm calm. I'm not afraid whatsoever. I'll stay until something happens."

In Britain, Mrs Loyau-Kennet is being regarded as a national hero, even Prime Minister David Cameron praising her courage.

Sources:

Catholic Herald

The Telegraph

NZ Herald

Image: The Times