Pope in Iraq
NAJAF (AFP) – Iraq’s Christians should live in peace, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shiite Muslims, told Pope Francis that in a historic meeting in Iraq yesterday.
The meeting, held 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’ efforts to deepen dialogue with other religions.
He later addressed the rich spectrum of Iraq’s religious communities at Ur, the traditional birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, a central figure in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, where he made an impassioned plea for “unity” after conflict.
The 84-year-old pontiff’s trip to Iraq is an effort to both comfort the country’s ancient but dwindling Christian community and deepen his dialogue with other faiths.
His meeting with the grand ayatollah lasted 50 minutes, with Sistani’s office putting out a statement shortly afterwards thanking Francis for visiting the holy city of Najaf.
Sistani, 90, “affirmed his concern that Christian citizens should live like all Iraqis in peace and security, and with their full constitutional rights,” the statement said.
His office published an image of the two, neither wearing masks: Sistani in a black turban with his wispy grey beard reaching down to his black robe and Francis in all white, looking directly at the grand ayatollah.
Sistani is extremely reclusive and rarely grants meetings, but made an exception to host Francis, an outspoken proponent of interreligious dialogue.
The pope had earlier landed at Najaf airport, where posters had been set up, featuring a famous saying by Ali, the fourth caliph and the Prophet Mohammed’s relative, who was buried in the holy city.
“People are of two kinds, either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity,” the banners read.
Francis then headed straight to the desert site of the ancient city of Ur, where Abraham is believed to have been born in the second millenium before Christ.
“It all started from here,” Francis said after hearing from representatives of Iraq’s diverse religious communities.
There were Yazidis, whose ancestral heartland of Sinjar was ravaged by the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014 as well as Mandeans, Kakais, Bahais and Zoroastrians.
Shiite and Sunni sheikhs as well as Christian clerics were in attendance.
Each were wearing their traditional religious garb, with a dozen different types of robe and headdress on display in the red-carpeted pavilion set up for the visit.
Iraq is a Muslim-majority country of 40 million whose Christian population has shrunk in the last two decades to just one percent, with minorities still complaining of ostracism and persecution.
During his address, Francis said freedom of conscience and of religion were “fundamental rights” that should be respected everywhere.
“We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion,” he said in a message of solidarity with the minorities persecuted under IS rule.
The pontiff also made an impassioned plea for “unity” after conflict.
“Let us ask for this in praying for the whole Middle East. Here, I think especially of neighbouring war-torn Syria,” he said.
Following the prayer service in Ur, Francis was to head back to Baghdad to preside over a mass at the St. Joseph Cathedral.