INTERFAITHFUL
Pope Francis meets with Islam cleric in Iraq
Pope Francis held a historic meeting with one of Shia Islam’s most powerful figures and visited the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham in Iraq on Saturday during his first international trip since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The 84-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church held a 45-minute meeting with the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the reclusive and legendary Shiite cleric, at his home in the holy city of Najaf in central Iraq.
“The Holy Father stressed the importance of collaboration and friendship between religious communities,” according to a Vatican statement released after the historic meeting with the 90-year-old Muslim cleric, a powerful spiritual leader who urged his millions of followers in the Shiite majority country to take up arms against ISIS fighters in 2014.
The meeting was one of Francis’ first stops on his whirlwind four-day trip to the Middle Eastern country, which also included a visit to the 4,000-year-old city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, who symbolizes a unifying force for Muslims, Christians and Jews. The pope has stressed understanding among religions as one of the main tenets of his papacy.
“From this place, where faith was born, from the land of our Father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful,” said Francis during an interfaith prayer service in Ur which brought together Shia, Sunni, Christian
and Yazidi religious leaders. “Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: They are betrayals of religion.”
On Sunday, the pope is scheduled to visit the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh, a largely Christian community in northern Iraq. The church was looted by Islamic State militants in 2014.