Pope Francis’ Iraq visit chair yet to reach Dhi Qar museum – Shafaq News

Shafaq News- Dhi Qar

The chair used by the late Pope Francis during his
historic 2021 visit to Iraq has yet to be delivered to Dhi Qar’s archaeological
museum despite a government decision allocating it to the province, a local
source told Shafaq News on Thursday.

The pontiff left the chair in the ancient city of Ur
after participating in the Abrahamic prayer gathering, an interfaith event that
brought together representatives of Iraq’s religious communities, in March
2021. Iraq’s Council of Ministers, under former Prime Minister Mustafa
Al-Kadhimi, later approved its transfer to the archaeological museum in
Nasiriyah, the source said, but more than five years on, the chair’s whereabouts
remain unknown.

The source also referred to unverified reports
alleging that a political entity sold the item to an external party for
hundreds of millions of dinars. No evidence has been presented to support the
claim, and no official body has publicly confirmed it.

Pope Francis, who died in 2025, was the first pontiff
to visit Iraq. During his four-day trip, he traveled to Baghdad, Ur, Najaf,
Erbil, Mosul, and Qaraqosh, where he met political, religious, and community
leaders, including Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah
Ali Al-Sistani.

Read more: What makes Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq “historic”?