“They awaited St. John Paul II, who was not permitted to go. One cannot disappoint a people for the second time,” Pope Francis said ahead of his apostolic visit to Iraq, March 5 to March 8.

What is driving Pope Francis to enter a war zone, during a global pandemic?

Pope Francis is making history with his trip to Iraq. Follow along.

Pope Francis, by visiting a Shia majority country, completes his pastoral embrace of the Islamic world, begun two years ago with his trip to Abu Dhabi when he met with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb.

An interview with Cardinal Leonardi Sandri, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Oriental Churches

These were the first such suicide bombings since June 2019 and came on the eve of the pope’s planned visit to the country on March 5-8, a visit that now is under serious question.

It is worth remembering that occupying a legislature can be an act of democracy. We in the United States might need to do it again.

While a visit from the pope will no doubt provide a spiritual and psychological boost to Nineveh Christians, under the current pandemic conditions it is a prospect that must give local public health officials pause.

Vatican sources acknowledge the visit, which Pope Francis has long hoped for, is “risky” under current conditions.

China criticized Pope Francis on Tuesday over a passage in his new book in which he mentions suffering by China’s Uighur Muslim minority group.