BAGHDAD – Pope Francis on Monday wrapped up his historic whirlwind tour of Iraq that sought to bring hope to the country's marginalized Christian minority with a message of coexistence, forgiveness and peace.
The pontiff and his traveling delegation were to be seen off with a farewell ceremony at the Baghdad airport, from where he will leave for Rome following a four-day papal visit that has covered five provinces across Iraq.
At every turn, Francis urged Iraqis to embrace diversity — from Najaf in the south, where he held a historic face-to-face meeting with powerful Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to Nineveh to the north, where he met with Christian victims of the Islamic State group's terror and heard their testimonies of