Historic meeting hopes to unite community
Pope Francis walked through a narrow alley in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf for a historic meeting with the country’s top Shiite cleric yesterday, and together they delivered a powerful message of peaceful co-existence in a country still reeling from backto-back conflicts over the past decade.
In a gesture both simple and profound, Grand Ayatollah Ali a-Sistani welcomed Francis into his spartan home. The 90-year-old cleric, one of the most eminent among Shiites worldwide, afterwards said Christians should live in peace in Iraq and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis. The Vatican said Francis thanked alSistani 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,
Later in the day, the Pope attended a gathering of Iraqi religious leaders in the deserts near a symbol of the country’s ancient past — the 6000-year-old ziggurat in the Plains of Ur, also the traditional birthplace of Abraham, the biblical patriarch revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
The joint appearance by figures from across Iraq’s sectarian spectrum was almost unheard-of, given their communities’ often bitter divisions.
Together, the day’s events gave symbolic and practical punch to the central message of Francis’ visit, calling for Iraq to embrace its diversity.
Still, his message faces a tough sell in a country where every community has been traumatised by sectarian bloodshed and discrimination and where politicians have tied their power to sectarian interests.
In al-Sistani, Francis sought the help of an ascetic, respected figure who is immersed in those sectarian identities but is also a powerful voice standing above them.
Al-Sistani is one of the most senior clerics in Shiite Islam, deeply revered among Shiites in Iraq and worldwide. His rare but powerful political interventions have helped shape present-day Iraq. Their meeting in al-Sistani’s humble home, the first ever between a pope and a grand ayatollah, was months in the making, with every detail painstakingly negotiated beforehand.
Early yesterday, the 84-year-old pontiff, travelling in a bullet-proof 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.
A religious official in Najaf called the meeting “very positive”.