Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Pope, ayatollah join in call for peace, unity
Faith leaders have historic visit in Iraq
PLAINS OF UR, Iraq — Pope Francis and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence Saturday, 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 said religious authorities have a role in protecting Iraq’s Christians, and that they 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 defense of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most violent times in Iraq’s recent history.
Al-Sistani, 90, is one of the most senior clerics in Shiite Islam, and his rare but powerful political interventions have helped shape present-day Iraq. He is a deeply revered figure in Shiite-majority Iraq whose opinions on religious and other matters are sought by Shiites worldwide.
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 Saturday, the 84-yearold pontiff, traveling in a bullet-resistant 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 yards to al-Sistani’s modest home.
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. He emerged just under an hour later, still limping from an apparent flare-up of sciatica nerve pain that makes walking difficult.
The “very positive” meeting lasted 40 minutes, said a religious official in Najaf.
The official said al-Sistani, who normally remains seated for visitors, stood to greet Francis at the door of his room. Al-Sistani and Francis sat close to each other, without masks. Al-Sistani, who rarely appears in public, wore black robes and a black turban, in contrast to Francis’ all-white cassock.
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 ayatollah, who underwent surgery for a fractured thigh bone last year, looked tired.
The pope removed his shoes before entering al-Sistani’s room and was served tea and water. Al-Sistani spoke for most of the meeting. Francis paused before leaving his room to have a last look, the official said.
LAND OF ABRAHAM
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.
“This blessed place brings us back to our origins,” Francis said, adding. “We seem to have returned home.”
He referred to himself and the others as “descendants of Abraham and the representatives of different religions,” and said that, like “the great Patriarch, we need to take concrete steps” toward peace.
“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-year-old archaeological complex near the modern city of Nasiriyah.
The Vatican said Iraqi Jews were invited to the event but did not attend, without providing further details. Iraq’s ancient Jewish community was decimated in the 20th century by violence and mass emigration fueled by the Arab-Israeli conflict, and only a handful remain.
Elders surrounding the pope spoke of the hardships that Iraq’s disappearing religious minorities have endured. “I am an Iraqi Sabean Mandean who have witnessed my children, brothers, all relatives fleeing away,” said Rafah Alhilali, whose monotheistic faith shares some elements with Christianity and has St. John the Baptist as its central prophet.
Sheikh Faroq Khalil, a member of the Yazidi spiritual council, said Francis promised him he would pray for the protection of his persecuted minority.
Other Iraqis also 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.”
Ali Thijeel, a resident of the nearby city of Nasiriyah who attended the event, said he hoped the pope’s visit would encourage investment in the area to attract pilgrims and tourists. “This is what we were waiting for,” he said. “This is a message to the government and politicians. They should take care of this city and pay attention to our history.”
But other Iraqis felt that, behind the day’s stagecraft, there were problems that hand-holding among leaders could not easily change.
In Nasiriyah, some wondered why Iraq’s government had paved roads for the pope while leaving theirs potholed. Others mentioned nonreligious problems that abet the country’s instability like corruption, electricity cuts and poor investment. The education system is so overwhelmed that students take classes in shifts.
“We were not allowed to go to Ur there because we are just regular people. They have spent so much money on this visit and yet here they spend nothing, look around you,” said Haider Khuder, a member of the city’s writers union, glancing at the trash that lined a row of shuttered shops.
Several streets away, two young men were unfurling a banner that showed the faces of activists killed by Iraqi militias and riot police.
“This was a moment to bring Iraq’s problems to the world and they wouldn’t even let us show them,” said Abbas al-Iraqi, whose brother Sajad, an activist, was kidnapped last year. His brother’s face was on the banner, with messages in Arabic and English asking Francis to appeal for his freedom.
“We tried to take it to Ur, but they stopped us at a checkpoint when they saw the banner,” he said. “They didn’t want this to be seen.”
A WISH FOR CHRISTIANS
The Vatican said the visit to al-Sistani was a chance for Francis to emphasize 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.
Between 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion, and 2010, more than half of Iraq’s Christians left the country, leaving about 500,000 from as many as 1.4 million. In 2014, the expansion of the Islamic State group led to more persecution and migration, and Christians today constitute little more than 1% of the population.
For the 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.
Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako called the pope’s visit “a turning point in Christian-Muslim relations.”
“I think this meeting will change things in Iraq,” agreed Iraqi Bishop Basel Yaldo. “We hope the Christians come back after this visit of Pope Francis.”
One of al-Sistani’s representatives in Nasiriya, Sheikh Haider al-Dubaisi, described the sight of Francis walking through Najaf’s alleyways as a dream come true.
“Those steps were historic, they reflected so much,” he said. “He came even though he could barely walk. He sent a message not only to Iraqis, but to the whole world that Islam and other religions can sit together peacefully.”
‘LOVE IS OUR STRENGTH’
Later Saturday, Francis delivered a sermon at the Chaldean Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, invoking similar themes of common good. “Love is our strength,” he told the crowd, and as he walked out of the cathedral people chanted, “Viva, viva Papa!”
Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday — his trip themed “You Are All Brothers” — and met with senior government officials. The first-ever papal visit to the country also marked his first international trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and his meeting Saturday marked the first time a pope had met a grand ayatollah.
On the few occasions where he has made his opinion known, the reclusive al-Sistani, who believes that religion should not govern the state, has shifted the course of Iraq’s modern history.
In the years after the U.S.led invasion, he repeatedly preached calm and restraint as the Shiite majority came under attack by al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists. The country was nevertheless plunged into years of sectarian violence.
His 2014 fatwa, or religious edict, calling on able-bodied men to join the security forces in fighting the Islamic State group swelled the ranks of Shiite militias, many closely tied to Iran. In 2019, as anti-government demonstrations gripped the country, his sermon led to the resignation of the prime minister.
Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group in 2017 but there are still sporadic attacks. There also have been recent rocket attacks linked to the standoff between the U.S. and Iran after the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord and its imposition of crippling sanctions on Iran. President Joe Biden has said he wants to revive the deal.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted Saturday that he hoped Francis’ trip to Iraq would “help promote religious harmony and understanding among members of the different religions in Iraq and around the world.”
Information for this article was contributed by Nicole Winfield, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Anmar Khalil and Samya Kullab of The Associated Press; by Jason Horowitz and Jane Arraf of The New York Times; and by Chico Harlan, Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim of The Washington Post.