Basra governor dedicates a painting representing the marshes of Iraq to His Holiness the Pope

By Iraqi News Agency
Amr Salem

Photo Iraqi News Agency

The Governor of Basra, Asaad Al-Eidani, gave on Wednesday a painting representing Iraqi marshland to Pope Francis, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported. “We visited His Holiness Pope Francis and attended the entire mass. I was keen to present a painting of the Iraqi marshes to His Holiness the Pope,” Al-Eidani told INA. 

“The painting symbolizes the dwellings of our people in the marshlands. I explained to Pope Francis that this is the first civilization created on earth and known to mankind,” the Governor of Basra said. 

Al-Eidani, accompanied by an official delegation from the Christian community in Iraq, arrived in Rome to discuss the situation of the Christian community, INA illustrated. 

Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome, and the sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first from the Americas, and the first pope from outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of Syrian pope Gregory III.