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Security personnel surround Pope Francis as he exits Baghdad’s Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation (Sayidat al-Najat) at the beginning of the first papal visit to Iraq on March 5, 2021. – In a speech to the faithful in Baghdad, the pontiff expressed his gratitude to his fellow clergy for supporting the Christians of Iraq, whose population has declined due to the conflict. (Photo by Ayman HENNA / AFP)
NAJAF, Iraq – Pope Francis begins the second day of his historic visit to Iraq on Saturday with an extraordinary meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country’s highest authority on Shiite Muslims.
The 84-year-old pontiff is defying a second wave of coronavirus cases and renewed security fears to make a “long-awaited” trip to Iraq, with the goal of comforting the country’s ancient Christian community, while deepening his dialogue with other religions.
After speaking with worshipers in Baghdad on Friday, Francis will travel to the Iraqi sanctuary city of Najaf early Saturday to see the 90-year-old Sistani.
The two will meet at 9 am (0600 GMT) in Sistani’s humble home in one of Najaf’s small alleys, with no press being allowed, as the Grand Ayatollah is hardly ever seen in public.
The visit is one of the highlights of Francis’s four-day trip to a war-scarred Iraq, where Sistani has played a key role in suppressing tensions in recent decades.
It took months of careful negotiations between Najaf and the Vatican to secure the face-to-face meeting.
“We are proud of what this visit represents and we thank those who made it possible,” said Mohamed Ali Bahr al-Ulum, a high-ranking cleric in Najaf.
Upon arrival, the Pope will be greeted by posters with a famous saying from Ali, the fourth caliph and relative of the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried in Najaf.
“People are of two kinds, whether they are your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity,” read the banners.
‘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 the majority in Iraq, and is a national figure for Iraqis.
“Ali Sistani is a religious leader with high moral authority,” said Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, director of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and specialist in Islamic studies.
Massir Hayat, a Catholic nun in charge of the youth organization at the Convent of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Mary, performs with young people during a celebration in a public square in the predominantly Christian city of Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), in the province of Nineveh, about 30 kilometers from northern Iraq. Mosul on March 5, 2021, before the Pope’s visit to the city. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
Sistani began his religious studies at the age of five, rising through the ranks of the Shiite clergy to Grand Ayatollah in the 1990s.
While Saddam Hussein was in power, he languished under house arrest for years, but emerged after the US-led invasion that toppled the repressive regime to play an unprecedented public role.
In 2019, he supported Iraqi protesters demanding better public services and preventing outside interference in Iraqi internal affairs.
On Friday in Baghdad, Pope Francis made a similar request.
“That partisan interests cease, those outside interests that do not take into account the local population,” said Francis.
Sistani has had a complicated relationship with his birthplace, Iran, where the other main headquarters of the Shiite religious authority is located: Qom.
While Najaf affirms the separation of religion and politics, Qom believes that the top cleric, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should also rule.
‘Great prestige’
Iraqi clerics and Christian leaders said the visit could strengthen Najaf’s position compared to Qom.
“The Najaf school has great prestige and is more secular than the Qom school, more religious,” Ayuso said.
“Najaf gives more weight to social issues,” he added.
In Abu Dhabi in 2019, the Pope met with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo and a key authority on Sunni Muslims.
They signed a text encouraging Christian-Muslim dialogue, which Catholic clerics hoped Sistani would also endorse, but clerical sources in Najaf told AFP that is unlikely.
While the Pope was vaccinated and encouraged others to receive the vaccine, Sistani’s office has not announced his vaccination.
Pope Francis is assisted by a bodyguard during his visit to the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation (Sayidat al-Najat) in the capital Baghdad at the beginning of the first papal visit to Iraq on March 5, 2021. – In an address to the faithful in Baghdad, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude to his fellow clergy for supporting the Christians of Iraq, whose population has declined due to the conflict. (Photo by Ahmad AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
Iraq is currently affected by a resurgence of coronavirus cases, recording more than 5,000 infections and more than two dozen deaths daily.
After his visit to the Grand Ayatollah, the Pope will head to the desert site of the ancient city of Ur, believed to be the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, where he will organize an interfaith service, with the assistance of many of the other minorities. religious of Iraq. .
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