Pope Francis landed in war-battered Iraq Friday on a first-ever papal visit, defying security fears and the pandemic to comfort one of the world's oldest and most persecuted Christian communities. The 84-year-old, who said he was travelling to Iraq as a 'pilgrim of peace', will also reach out to Shiite Muslims when he meets Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The pope left Rome early Friday for the four-day trip, his first abroad since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics saying he felt 'caged' inside the Vatican.
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