Pope, Al Sistani appeal for peace in historic talks

‘WE CANNOT BE SILENT WHEN TERRORISM ABUSES RELIGION’

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shiites, told Pope Francis in a historic meeting in Iraq yesterday that the country’s Christians should live in “peace.”

The meeting, on the second day of the first-ever papal visit to Iraq, marked a landmark moment in modern religious history and a milestone in Francis’s efforts to deepen dialogue with other religions.

His meeting with the grand ayatollah lasted 50 minutes. Al Sistani, 90, “affirmed his concern that Christian citizens should live like all Iraqis in peace and security, and with their full constitutional rights,” his office said. Nearly 25,000 security forces were deployed in Najaf ahead of the pope’s arrival. The Vatican, in its statement about the meeting, said the pope had thanked the cleric “for speaking up — together with the Shiite community — in defence of those most vulnerable and persecuted amid the violence and great hardships.” The visit signalled to Shiite leaders that Christians are to be respected.

Francis then headed straight to the desert site of the ancient city of Ur. “It all started from here,” Pope Francis said. “We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion,” Francis said, in a message of solidarity with the minorities persecuted under Daesh rule.

Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: they are betrayals of religion. We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion...”

Pope Francis

[Al Sistani] affirmed his concern that Christian citizens should live like all Iraqis in peace and security, and with their full constitutional rights.”

A statement from Al Sistani’s office The pope removed his shoes before entering Al Sistani’s room. Al Sistani, who normally remains seated for visitors, stood to greet Francis — a rare honour.

Your visit means a triumph of virtue, it is a symbol of appreciation to Iraqis. Blessed is he who uproots fear from souls.”

Rafah Husein Baher | a member of the ancient Sabean Mandaean religion

We welcome the pope’s visit to Iraq and especially to Najaf and his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. Hope it will be good for Iraq and the Iraqi people.”

Haidar Al Ilyawi | A Najaf resident

Pope Francis and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence yesterday, urging Muslims in the war-weary Arab nation to embrace Iraq’s long-beleaguered Christian minority during a historic meeting in the holy city of Najaf.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, 90, said religious authorities have a role in protecting Iraq’s Christians, and that Christians should live in peace and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis. The Vatican said Francis thanked Al Sistani for having “raised his voice in defence of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most violent times in Iraq’s recent history.

Meeting of faiths

The historic meeting in Al Sistani’s humble home was months in the making, with every detail painstakingly discussed and negotiated between the ayatollah’s office and the Vatican.

Early yesterday, the 84-yearold pontiff, travelling in a bulletproof Mercedes-Benz, pulled up along Najaf’s narrow and column-lined Rasool Street, which culminates at the golden-domed Imam Ali Shrine, one of the most revered sites in Shiite Islam. He then walked the few metres to Al Sistani’s modest home, which the cleric has rented for decades.

A group of Iraqis wearing traditional clothes welcomed him outside. As a masked Francis entered the doorway, a few white doves were released in a sign of peace.

Rare honour

The “very positive” meeting lasted a total of 40 minutes, said a religious official in Najaf, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief media.

The official said Al Sistani, who normally remains seated for visitors, stood to greet Francis at the door of his room — a rare honour. Al Sistani and Francis sat close to one another, without masks. The official said there was some concern about the fact that the pope had met with so many people the day before. Francis has received the coronavirus vaccine but Al Sistani has not. The pope removed his shoes before entering Al Sistani’s room and was served tea and a plastic bottle of water. Al Sistani spoke for most of the meeting. Francis paused before leaving Al Sistani’s room to have a last look, the official said.

The pope arrived later in the ancient city of Ur for an interfaith meeting in the traditional birthplace of Abraham, the biblical patriarch revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews.

“From this place, where faith was born, from the land of our father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters,” Francis said. “Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: they are betrayals of religion.”

Religious leaders stood to greet him. While Francis wore a mask, few of the leaders on the tented stage did. The meeting was held in the shadow of Ur’s magnificent ziggurat, the 6,000-yearold archaeological complex near the modern city of Nasiriyah.

‘Christians should live like all Iraqis’

The Vatican said the historic visit to Al Sistani was a chance for Francis to emphasise the need for collaboration and friendship between different religious communities. In a statement issued by his office after the meeting, Al Sistani affirmed that Christians should “live like all Iraqis, in security and peace and with full constitutional rights.” He pointed out the “role that the religious authority plays in protecting them, and others who have also suffered injustice and harm in the events of past years.”

Al Sistani wished Francis and the followers of the Catholic Church happiness, and thanked him for taking the trouble to visit him in Najaf, the statement said.

For Iraq’s dwindling Christian minority, a show of solidarity from Al Sistani could help secure their place in Iraq after years of displacement — and they hope, ease intimidation from Shiite militiamen against their community.

Signs of hope

Iraqis cheered the meeting of two respected faith leaders.

‘’We welcome the pope’s visit to Iraq and especially to the holy city of Najaf and his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani,” said Najaf resident Haidar Al Ilyawi. “It is a historic visit and hope it will be good for Iraq and the Iraqi people.”

AFP ■Pope and Al Sistani during their landmark encounter in Najaf yesterday. The reclusive Al Sistani is rarely seen in public, but he made an exception to host Pope Francis. The Grand Ayatollah, who normally remains seated for dignitaries, stood up to greet Francis in a rare honour.

AFP ■Pope Francis arrives at Baghdad’s Saint Joseph Cathedral on the second day of the first papal visit to Iraq yesterday. He made a plea for peace, telling those gathered at an interreligious service in southern Iraq that he hoped the world would “journey from conflict to unity.”

AP ■People take selfies next to what is believed to be the house of Abraham near the Great Ziggurat in the archaeological area of the Sumerian city-state of Ur, yesterday.

AFP ■Pope Francis receive gifts during an interfaith service with many of Iraq’s religious minorities in attendance at the House of Abraham in the ancient city of Ur, yesterday.

AP ■A white dove, symbol of peace, is released in front of Pope Francis as he arrives to a meeting with Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in Najaf, yesterday.

AFP ■Pope Francis arrives at the Iraqi shrine city of Najaf yesterday for the historic meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani. Their meeting lasted a total of 40 minutes.

AP ■Pope Francis, in the black car at right, arrives at an interreligious meeting near the archaeological area of the Sumerian city-state of Ur yesterday.

Reuters ■A woman standing outside holds a child as she listens as Pope Francis holds a Mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of ‘Saint Joseph’ in Baghdad.

AP ■A nun adjusts the face mask of a girl as children sit while waiting for Pope Francis at Baghdad’s Saint Joseph Cathedral ahead of a mass.

AFP ■Pope Francis with Iraqi religious figures during an interfaith service at the House of Abraham in the ancient city of Ur.