Pope Francis will meet with a top Shiite cleric on the second day of a historic visit to Iraq

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Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iraq, the main religious authority for most Shiite Muslims, hosted the world’s Catholic leader, Pope Francis, on Saturday in the holy city of Najaf.

The two men, a highly respected believer at the humble Sistani home in the holy city of Najaf, met early Saturday, the second day of the first ever papal expedition to Iraq.

The 84-year-old pontiff is facing a second wave of coronavirus cases and fears of renewed security to make a “long-awaited” trip to Iraq, aimed at comforting the country’s ancient Christian community and deepen its communication with other religions.

He landed at Najaf airport, where posters were set up depicting a famous saying by Ali, the fourth caliph and relatives of the Prophet Mohammed, who is buried in the holy city.

“People are of two kinds, either brothers in faith or equal in humanity,” the banners read.

A convoy of cars took him into the Old Town, which was under very tight security. He stepped out into one of Najaf’s tiny sidewalks and an AFP reporter saw him cross the threshold to Sistani’s office.

No press was allowed inside the meeting as the 90-year-old grand ayatollah is highly repetitive and almost publicly seen.

The trip is one of the highlights of Francis ’four-day war-torn Iraq trip to Iraq, where Sistani has played a key role in reducing tensions in recent decades.

It took months of careful negotiations between Najaf and the Vatican to secure the one-on-one meeting.

“We are proud of what this trip represents and we thank those who made it possible,” said Mohamed Ali Bahr al-Ulum, a senior clerk in Najaf.

‘High moral authority’

Pope Francis, a staunch supporter of interfaith efforts, has met with top Sunni clerics in several Muslim-majority countries, including Bangladesh, Turkey, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, Sistani is followed by the majority of the world’s 200 million Shiites – a minority among Muslims but a majority in Iraq – and is a national icon for Iraq.

“Ali Sistani is a religious leader with high moral authority,” said Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, head of the Pontifical Council for Intersex Conversation and an expert in Islamic studies.

Sistani began his religious studies at the age of five, climbing through the ranks of Shiite clergy to grand ayatollah in the 1990s.

While in power, Saddam Hussein was involved in house arrests for years, but emerged after the U.S.-led attack that overturned the disciplinary regime to play an unprecedented public role. .

In 2019, he stood with Iraqi campaigners calling for better public services and extraordinary outside intervention in Iraq’s domestic affairs.

On Friday in Baghdad, Pope Francis made a similar request.

“Party interests may stop, the outsiders who don’t care about the local people,” Francis said.

Sistani has a complex relationship with his birthplace of Iran, where another major seat of Shiite religious authority lies: Qom.

The Pope’s program in Iraq includes visits to the cities of Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Mosul, Qaraqosh and Erbil. It covers about 1,445 km in a country where Iraqi-American tensions still reside and where the Covid-19 outbreak has recently led to the highest numbers of diseases.

Pope Francis travels in an armed car to avoid the usual throwing crowds to get a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church. At times he has to travel either by helicopter or plane over areas where jihadists belonging to the Islamic State group are still present.

The proceedings will begin on Friday with a speech to Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, addressing the security and economic problems facing 40 million people in Iraq. The pope is expected to cite the persecution of the country’s Christian minority.

On Saturday he will visit the holy city of Najaf, where he will be hosted by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the supreme authority for many Shiites in Iraq and the world.

The pope will make a visit to the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of the Bible, according to the Bible, the prophet Abraham, a figure common to all three monotheistic religions. There he prays with Muslims, Yazidis and Sanaeans (pre-Christian monotheisms).

Francis will continue his tour on Sunday in the Nineveh region (northern Iraq), an Iraqi Christian attraction. It will then go to Mosul and Qaraqoch, two cities marked by the devastation of the Islamic terrorists.

The pontiff will conclude his visit by officiating at an outdoor mass on Sunday in the presence of thousands of Christians in Erbil, the Kurdistan capital of Iraq. This Kurdish Muslim stronghold has provided shelter for hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis and Muslims who have fled the temptation of the Islamic State group.

While Najaf insists on religious and political segregation, Qom believes the chief cleric – Iran’s chief executive, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – should also rule.

‘Great reputation’

Iraqi clergy and Christian leaders said the visit could strengthen Najaf’s position compared to Qom’s.

“Najaf school has a great reputation and is more secretive than the more religious Qom school,” Ayuso said.

“Najaf is putting more emphasis on social issues,” he said.

In Abu Dhabi in 2019, the Pope met with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo and a leading authority for Sunni Muslims.

They signed a text promoting Christian-Muslim communication, which Catholic clergy hoped Sistani would also support, but clerical sources in Najaf told AFP it is unlikely.

While the Pope has received the vaccine and encouraged others to get the injection, the Sistani office has not announced his vaccination.

Iraq is currently plagued by a resurgence of coronavirus cases, recording more than 5,000 infections and more than two dozen deaths per day.

After visiting the Grand Ayatollah, the Pope goes to the desert site of the ancient city of Ur – believed to have been born the prophet Abraham – where he hosts an interfaith service, with many religious minorities. another Iraq present. .

(FRANCE 24 le AFP)

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