Kurdish family helped by Pope Francis, in the first rows of his funeral: he saved us

“Pope Francis was a brave man. He always looked for peace. He looked at everyone with the same eyes, and you were black or black, he would not care about your religion or what he put in your passport. He wanted to help all people,” says Impan Nader still impacted for having lived in the first ranks of the Plaza de San Pedro the funeral of the man who changed his life.

In addition to the more than 140 international delegations that participated in the solemn celebration of Pope Francis’s masquias, in the first rows a group of homeless people and several immigrants families also took seat. In total, 40 people who, during these 12 years of pontificate, have closely experienced the pontiff’s tenderness.

Among them was this young Kurdish, 31, along with her four children and her husband, who had to flee from Iraq in the face of the advance of the angry violence of the Islamic State and the fed up for the lack of minimum services and opportunities for the future.

But his attempt to arrive in Europe was anchored in Cyprus, where he was trapped with his family, in a refugee camp planted in a clay field, more than two years. Then he met the Pontiff, during the apostolic trip he made to this country in 2021.

“He saved us,” slides after verifying the terrible living conditions they suffered in the refugee field without drinking water, or food and dying in a tent with the plastic roof that barely protected them from the rain.

Every time they looked at the sky and was cloudy “we feared that the water would end up leaking through the walls of the store. If the mud entered, it was then desperate to get clean and dry everything,” he describes.

“I have always trusted and loved God. I picked up a lot to change my life and God answered me by sending me to Pope Francis who has been our angel,” he says.

In fact, his meeting was totally fortuitous. Or rather, fallen from heaven. They learned of the media that Pope Francis was going to travel to Cyprus and this family, who is Muslim, wanted to see that man dressed in white who talked about peace and fraternity.

So on December 3, 2021 they were planted in the Church of the Santa Cruz, in Nicosia. Magnet sat – covered with his usual Hiyab – in the last bank, without wanting to get too much attention. But the pontiff noticed her right away and when she left she gave her a strong handshake and dedicated her best smile.

What I did not know is that this moment would change forever his life and that of his family. Near it was Silvina Pérez, who leads the Spanish edition of L’Osservatore Romano. The phones were exchanged and kept the contact for several weeks. Until one day, magnet armed himself with courage and asked him for something impossible: to get out of that hell.

The journalist began to move the threads to try to change the fate of that family and include them in the list of selected people to be part of the humanitarian corridors coordinated by the community of Sant’Egidio.

But it was quite complicated, so he called Pope Francis directly, who did not hesitate for a second to mediate for the magnet’s family and assume all the expenses of the trip.

“When they told us we would leave that horrible place, I could not believe it. It was an immense gift of Pope Francis. Today, we all cried the death of Pope Francis. For me he has been the best religious leader I’ve ever seen,” he says moved.

Imán and his family landed in Rome in March 2022. At this time, they have learned Italian, their children frequent public school and both parents work in the field of restoration.

In these three years his meetings with Pope Francis have been several. In July 2022, they were able to greet Pope Francis after the General Hearing in the Plaza de San Pedro del Vaticano thanks to the mediation of the Spanish journalist Eva Fernández who then helped them write in Spanish a message that condensed all their thanks: “Thank you for bringing us to Italy! My children now have a better life than in Iraq and Chipre. Thank you for allowing us to be their neighbors!”

The most recent was on February 5, shortly before Pope Francis entered the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome where he was admitted 38 days due to bilateral pneumonia. “On that occasion he confessed that I was very sick and that he felt tired, but I could never think that this was the last time I would see it,” Magnet concludes.