Beyond the Headlines: the legacy of the Pope's Iraq visit

Pandemic and serious security problems did not keep the pontiff from his visit

It is hard to overstate just how significant Pope Francis's visit to Iraq really was, or how remarkable it is that it actually went ahead.

Iraq, despite the best efforts of the security forces, is not stable.

Just days before the Pope arrived on March 5, a US civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack, probably the work of an Iran-backed militia.

Pope Francis’s predecessor Benedict said days before the pontiff left the Vatican that the trip was "dangerous".

And yet, it went ahead. And it did so in the middle of a global pandemic.

On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at the highlights of the visit, hearing from The National's own correspondents stationed across the country for the trip, and asks: what will be the legacy of these four historic days?