From Mosul's rubble-strewn streets to ancient churches at Karamlesh, badly damaged by the Islamic State group, Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel is preparing for the first-ever papal visit to Iraq.
Amid the cleanup and reconstruction, the priest has ensured some scars of war from IS's brutal campaign remain -- a broken chalice, a smashed cross on a church bell tower -- to remember the horrors the Christians of Iraq's Nineveh plains have survived.
"We forgive, without forgetting," said Michaeel, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, as he visited Karamlesh and other war-ravaged Christian villages of northern Iraq.
"But the most important thing is that joy enters the hearts of all, because this is not a simple formal visit -- it is a spiritual moment," he said with an infectious smile.
Since he learnt that Pope Francis would visit Iraq in March, the clergyman has seen his workload double.
"We're under enormous pressure: the Holy Father is not your average person -- he's the representative of a state and of all Catholics worldwide," Michaeel told AFP.
- Ancient churches in ruins -
Pope Francis has previously shied away from using bullet-proof vehicles in favour of a more open "popemobile", the better to meet people, but that may be difficult in a country where security threats still linger.
Aged 84, he may also struggle to make his way through the uneven pavements and debris-filled alleyways of Mosul.
"Everyone is going to want to get close to him, so it's a huge job," said Michaeel. "All security officials are going to be on their toes."
Michaeel checks on preparations by local choirs and scout troops.
He also coordinates with priests who will translate masses between Latin, Arabic, Italian and a form of Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus Christ, that is still spoken in Iraq's north.
It will be a first for the pope, too, as he will preside over his first-ever liturgy in the Eastern rite.
There is no cathedral or stadium large enough to hold the numbers of worshippers expected to turn up for a mass in Nineveh province, but authorities are working on a possible open-air venue.
In the interim, Michaeel is checking on more than a dozen churches -- many dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries -- that remain in ruins.
One is Miskinta Church, still heavily damaged, but the worst is the church of Saint Simon, its stone walls collapsing and its crypts filled with rubble and rubbish.
- 'Mosaic of a thousand colours' -
Michaeel, a native of Mosul, a melting pot of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities, worked as an oil engineer before he answered a calling to join the Church.
He is well known for his work in 2014 saving hundreds of rare manuscripts and scrolls by piling them into his car as IS was approaching.
Now, Michaeel wants to show the pope the beauty of Iraq's patchwork of minorities.
"This country is a mosaic of a thousand colours, and you can't leave it broken apart the way it is today," he said.
Michaeel told AFP that the pope's "strong words, his blessing, and his moral support" would help bring communities back together.
It is a view that lies at the heart of the pope's visit, especially when he holds inter-religious prayers at the ancient city of Ur in Iraq's south.
It is the site where Abraham, the father of three religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- is thought to have been born.
The pope's prayers will bring Christians and Muslims together, as well as the faithful from the ancient religions of the Yazidis and Sabeans.
"This tour across Iraq is extremely important," said Michaeel. "Not just for Christians but for all Iraqis."
Five places the Pope will see on his exceptional Iraq trip
Baghdad (AFP) March 1, 2021 - Pope Francis has an ambitious agenda for the first-ever papal visit to Iraq, including some of the country's most treasured sites.
Here are five key locations the pontiff is set to visit.
- Beleaguered Baghdad -
On his first day in the Iraqi capital, Francis will give a speech at the "Our Lady of Salvation" Catholic Church in the main commercial district of Karrada.
On October 31, 2010, Islamist militants stormed the church and killed 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security force personnel in one of the deadliest attacks on Iraq's dwindling Christian community.
Now, stained-glass windows at the church bear the victims' names and a defiant message above the altar reads, "Where is your victory, oh death?"
But the congregation has dwindled and concrete blast walls surround the church, making access difficult.
In the days leading up to the Pope's arrival, an Iraqi artist painted his likeness across those concrete walls, alongside the Iraqi flag and doves representing peace.
- Shrine city of Najaf -
As part of his outreach to Muslims, the Pope will visit Najaf, the 1,230-year-old city that is the spiritual capital of most Shiites around the world.
Its imposing shrine -- with a golden dome and intricate tiles inside -- is the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law Ali, highly revered in Shiite Islam.
The city was long under Ottoman rule, but during the First World War Britain took control, holding on despite a revolt by local clerics.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein banned pilgrimages to the holy city, but it witnessed a revival after he was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.
In Najaf, Pope Francis will meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top authority for most Shiite Muslims.
The 90-year-old cleric is never seen in public and rarely grants access to visitors, making the encounter one of the most extraordinary parts of the papal trip.
The two will meet in Sistani's humble one-storey home, with most press barred from attending the sit-down.
- Abraham's birthplace -
From there, the Pope will travel to the desert location of Ur, which was founded in the fourth millennium before Christ, and became a major city in the ancient Sumero-Akkadian empire.
Its most important feature is its ziggurat, a staggered, pyramid-like structure that was excavated between the two world wars.
Ur, thought to mean "town" in Sumerian, is believed to be where Abraham -- the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- was born in the second millenium BCE.
Pope Francis will hold an interreligious service there with some of Iraq's smallest minorities, including the Yazidis and the pre-Islamic Sabeans.
- Mosul and Qaraqosh -
The northern province of Nineveh is the heartland of Iraq's Christian community and its capital, Mosul, is where the Islamic State group chose to announce the establishment of its self-styled "caliphate" in 2014.
In Mosul, the Pope will visit the Al-Tahera Church in the city's west, which was ravaged by IS and the fighting that eventually forced the jihadists out of the city.
The first written records on Al-Tahera date back to the 17th century but some historians believe it could be as much as 1,000 years older.
During fighting in 2017, its roof caved in but the colonnaded royal door and side doors survived.
UNESCO is currently working to rehabilitate it and other parts of Mosul's heritage, including both churches and mosques.
About 30 kilometres (20 miles) to the south lies Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida and Hamdaniya, which has a long pre-Christian history but whose residents today speak a modern dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ.
Qaraqosh was largely destroyed by IS and the security situation remains tense, with state-sponsored armed groups deployed in large numbers in the surrounding plains.
- Arbil, the refuge -
One of the Pope's final stops will be an open-air mass in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region (KRI).
When IS overran Iraq's north, hundreds of thousands of Christians as well as Muslims and Yazidis sought refuge in the KRI, which was already hosting displaced minorities from previous rounds of conflict in Iraq.
There are traces of human settlement in Arbil as far back as the fifth millennium BCE. It went on to become a major urban hub and maintained that status through the Assyrian period.
Arbil's citadel, a massive hilltop complex overlooking the city's bazaar, was put on UNESCO's World Heritage Site list in 2014.
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