During his historic journey to Iraq in 2021, when Franciskus became the first pope to visit the country, there were plans to assassinate him, according to the biography. Suicide bombers were to attack the pope, according to two separate excerpts from the book published by The New York Times and Corriere della Sera.
As soon as the pope arrived in Iraq, the British intelligence service is said to have informed the Iraqi police that a woman was on her way to Mosul to blow herself up during the pope's visit. At the same time, a truck was heading in the same direction with the same intention, according to the book.
Franciskus later says he asked his own security guards what happened to the suicide bombers.
"The commander replied laconically: 'They no longer exist'. The Iraqi police had stopped them and made them blow up," the pope writes.
The biography, written together with the Italian author Carlo Musso, will be released in January.
