Pope Francis revealed in his upcoming memoir he was the target of two assassination attempts during his 2021 visit to Iraq.
British intelligence had apparently prevented a double-suicide bomb attack on the pontiff, according to The Telegraph. Excerpts from the book were first published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.
“The [Iraqi] police had alerted the Vatican Gendarmerie to a report from British intelligence: a woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was on her way to Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” Pope Francis revealed in the memoir, according to The Telegraph. “And a van had also left at full speed with the same intent.”
The pope had to overcome serious security concerns to make the historic trip, The Telegraph reported, but the occasion marked the first time a pontiff had ever visited the country. Iraq is the site of many biblically significant locations, but Christians have historically faced persecution and displacement from the land.
Francis expressed sorrow upon learning of the deaths of the failed assassins. “The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up…This too was the poisoned fruit of war,” the pontiff said, according to the Telegraph.
Terrorist groups such as ISIS remain active in Iraq, increasing tensions in the Middle East and worldwide.
Francis is not the first pope to survive an assassination attempt. Pope John Paul II was shot twice in 1981 by a Turkish gunman, according to Fox News.
Francis was elected during the papal conclave in 2013, becoming the first pope from the Americas, according to the United States Conference of Catholic bishops. The pope has recently suffered multiple health scares, including a heart attack and subsequent respiratory infection that required him to be hospitalized.
The full book, titled “Hope: The Autobiography,” will be released during the Vatican’s holy year, Jubilee 2025, and will be the first memoir published by a sitting pope, according to The Telegraph.
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