On the second day of his trip to Iraq, Pope Francis met with a Shia Muslim leader in Najaf and delivered a message of religious unity in the ancient community of Ur. Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell reports.

Defying the pandemic and the security risks, Pope Francis finally stepped onto Iraqi soil at Baghdad international airport at 12:45 p.m. on March 5, realizing a visit that he had desired from the beginning of his pontificate and that had evaded his predecessors.

Pope Francis told Iraqis that he will be visiting their country in three different roles: as a “penitent pilgrim,” a “pilgrim of peace” and a “pilgrim of hope.”

“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.

In a book on the health of the popes, Francis discusses his own health history and says he is now in good health for his age.

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

A number of the cardinal’s public statements on the liturgy and other topics reflected a pre-Vatican II traditionalist outlook that at times openly contrasted with the direction given by Pope Francis.

In his address to Vatican ambassadors, Pope Francis said that the pandemic “set before us a choice: either to continue on the road we have followed until now or to set out on a new path.”

Pope Francis today expressed his “live concern” at the recent developments in Myanmar where the military has seized power, overthrowing the results of the recent election.

Breaking with tradition and opening a new door in the synodal process, Pope Francis has appointed a woman, Sister Nathalie Becquart, as one of two new undersecretaries of the synod of bishops.