Monsignor Bashar M. Warda, the Archbishop of the Chaldean Diocese in Erbil, Iraq on March 28, 2015.

Daniel Ibanez
Archbishop Bashar M. Warda of the Chaldean Diocese in Erbil, Iraq on March 28, 2015.

Iraqi Archbishop Bashar Warda said the first-ever visit by a pope is eagerly awaited by a people that continues to feel the effects of the Islamic State’s campaign to eradicate the country’s 2,000-year-old Christian presence.