Pope Francis set aside time during his busy schedule in Iraq on Sunday for a long conversation with the father of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian boy whose body washed ashore in Turkey after drowning during the family's flight from the Syria's civil war.
The heart-wrenching photo of the three-year-old's body lying face-down on a sandy beach shocked the world and shed the light on the plight of the Syrian refugees and migrants risking their lives on dangerous sea crossings to Europe.
Alan's mother and brother died with him when a people-smuggler's boat capsized off the coast of Turkey in September 2015.
Pope Francis met Abdullah Kurdi after celebrating Mass at the Franso Hariri stadium in Erbil on Sunday evening, on the third day of his visit to Iraq.
“The Pope spent a long time with him and with the help of an interpreter was able to listen to the pain of a father for the loss of his family,” the Holy See Press office said.
Pope Francis expressed “his and the Lord's deep participation in the man's suffering”, it said.
For his part, Alan's father thanked the pontiff for his closeness to the tragedy and to the pain of “all those migrants who seek understanding, peace and security, leaving their country at the risk of their lives,” it added.
Handout pictures for the encounter showed the father and the pope talking at the end of Mass in the Iraqi Kurdish city. In one picture, the father gifts the Pope a framed painting of Alan.
Francis left Iraq on Monday after visiting six cities in central, southern and northern Iraq, meeting local officials and members of the dwindling Christian community. It was the first visit to Iraq by the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Through his stops in the capital, Baghdad, the Shiite shrine city Najaf, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, war-devastated Mosul and Qaraqosh, and finally in Erbil, he delivered a message of peace and hope to all Iraqis.
