Pope Francis has revealed in his forthcoming autobiography that he was targeted by suicide bombers during his visit to Iraq but was saved by a tip off from British intelligence the attacks were planned in 2021 during his visit to mosul where Iraqi Christians had been killed or driven out by Islamic State Fighters according to the intelligence a woman carrying explosives was intending to blow herself up during the papal visit and a truck was also on its way with the same intent the pope said he was told of the planned attacks as soon as he flew into
Iraq but it went to head the visit anyway um let us speak to Father Benedict key he's the founder of naserian do org he's a Catholic priest who was worked and visited Iraq many times thank you very much for being with us father um the the details of this are quite extraordinary because the pope was told on the Vatican fly over to Iraq that this was a possibility and yet it still went ahead despite the concerns of the Vatican the Vatican guards it shows what a brave move it was on the part of Pope Francis
well he knew I think from the very beginning that he was going to a very dangerous place we know that the Christians had been driven out of the Nineveh plain where mosul is in August of 2014 and had been heavily persecuted many many killed Isis most was the capital of the caliphate that's where Al Bagdad proclaimed the caliphate so it was always going going to be a a rather dangerous situation to be in but this new revelation of the plot makes it even clearer how how he was putting his life in great danger to come
and support the Christians yeah a day after the visit he he actually H he says in the book that he asked the head of his Squad of jeand what had become of the suicide bombers and the commander responded laconically they are no longer here so clearly they've been in intercepted by the Iraqi police what did he say or what did he say publicly about the visit when he came back from Iraq he was there really to show support for the Christians because I've been there since 2015 visiting when Isis was just uh very very close
to where all the Christians had been driven out from and many of them felt during those years that they'd been neglected by certainly by the the west but also to a certain extent by the church itself including the pope and so I think he he went really to show that they hadn't been forgotten the the Christians in the Middle East have been there since the beginning and are really a very persecuted minority now and so he was there to support them to show that the church in the west really did care and and they really
appreciated that they perhaps felt it was a a little late in coming but they really appreciated it yeah there were at one time around a million Christians living in Iraq I think that number has diminished to only a couple of hundred thousand now maybe two or 3 100,000 so it was an important visit and and it was one actually that that Pope John Paul had been warded off when Saddam Hussein was still there he he didn't travel it's that's true uh this this was Saddam went and then of course yes uh the horror was Unleashed
from 2003 on for the Christians the persecution wasn't just Isis people forget that the the persecution and the horror began really from the fall of Saddam all the way up up and then got much much worse during the the time of Isis and of course it's still happening all across the Middle East Christians are always at least second class citizens if not actively persecuted yeah the same happened of course in in Syria where have they gone where where has that diaspora gone to well many went into the the camps in places like Jordan and turkey
some have returned not nothing like the amount that there before then of course various countries in the west took them Australia Canada not unfortunately very many in Britain not very many in the United States under both Obama and Trump uh Christians were struggled because they often had to go through the UN camps in places like turkey and felt a sense of discrimination but there'll always be a minority the Christians will not be driven out of the Cradle of Christianity which is the whole Middle East well the book Hope was originally planned to come out after
francis's death but we're told that it it will be set for release in January um to Mark the Holy Catholic Year of Jubilee in 2025 so plenty more details to come out of that no doubt father key thank you very much for coming on the program thank you Christian around the world and across the UK you're watching BBC News
