Adour Ftouhi Boutros Katelma has decided to respond very concretely to this call. This Chaldean engineer envisages the reconstruction of a church in Ur of the Chaldeans, under the Iraqi governorate of Dhi Qar. He has just unveiled the plans to Patriarch Louis Raphaël Sako. The building would be equipped with a meeting room to accommodate Christian pilgrims from Iraq and around the world. The engineer also presented the funds necessary for its realization.

An initiative encouraged
The initiative is encouraged and blessed by Cardinal Sako. According to Fides agency, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi has also expressed his approval for this project.

On May 8, a dozen representatives of different Christian churches from around the world came to Ur and prayed together in Abraham’s “home”. A unique ecumenical act which also expressed the hope that the flow of Christian pilgrimages to this region would resume and grow soon. The location of the “Abraham’s House” in the city indeed represents a potential and undeniable incentive to encourage religious and archaeological tourism in the region.

The new church and the pilgrim reception hall will thus respond to the desire of Christian representatives to encourage pilgrimages to Iraq, in the footsteps of Abraham.

A highly symbolic place
According to tradition, it was indeed to Ur that God called his prophet Abraham, the father of all believers. God invited him to set out for the promised land and made him the promise of offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky. It is on this Mesopotamian plain, where civilization was born, that on March 6, Pope Francis wanted to go on a pilgrimage, on the second day of a historic trip to Iraq. “We, descendants of Abraham and representatives of various religions, feel that we have above all this role: to help our brothers and sisters to raise our gaze and prayer to heaven”, then insisted the Pope. In his presence and that of Christian and Muslim religious representatives, as well as many other Iraqi minorities, the prayer of the children of Abraham was then pronounced.

Cardinal Sako suggested dedicating the church to “Ibrahim al-khalil”, Abraham the Beloved, father of all believers. He also proposed to name the pilgrims’ meeting room after “Pope Francis”.