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PLAINS OF UR, Iraq: Pope Francis and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence on Saturday (March 6), urging Muslims in the war-weary Arab nation to embrace the Christian minority of Iraq during a historic meeting in the holy city of Najaf.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said that religious authorities have a role in protecting Christians in Iraq and that Christians should live in peace and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis.
The Vatican said Pope Francis thanked 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.
Sistani, 90, is one of the top clerics in Shiite Islam, and his rare but powerful political interventions have helped shape Iraq today. He is a deeply revered figure in Iraq, predominantly Shiite, and Shiites around the world seek his views on religious and other issues.
The historic meeting in Sistani’s humble home took months to complete, and every detail was thoroughly discussed and negotiated between the Ayatollah’s office and the Vatican.
Early on Saturday, the 84-year-old pontiff, in a bulletproof Mercedes-Benz, pulled up along the narrow and column-lined Rasool Street of Najaf, culminating in the domed Imam Ali shrine. Dorada, one of the most revered sites in Shiite Islam.
Then he walked a few meters to Sistani’s modest home, which the clergyman has rented for decades.
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A group of Iraqis dressed in traditional clothing greeted him outside. When a masked Pope Francis walked through the door, some white doves were released as a sign of peace. He emerged just under an hour later, still limping from an apparent flare of sciatic nerve pain that made it difficult for him to walk.
The “very positive” meeting lasted a total of 40 minutes, said a religious official in Najaf, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to report to the media.
The official said that Sistani, who normally sits for visitors, stood to greet the pope at the door of his room, a rare honor. Sistani and Pope Francis sat together, without masks. Sistani, who rarely appears in public, even on television, wore a black robe and black turban, in stark contrast to Francis’s all-white cassock.
The official said there was some concern that the pope had met with so many people the day before. Pope Francis has received the coronavirus vaccine, but Sistani has not. The elderly ayatollah, who underwent surgery for a broken femur last year, looked tired.
The Pope took off his shoes before entering Sistani’s room and they served him tea and a plastic bottle of water. Sistani spoke for most of the meeting. Pope Francis paused before leaving Sistani’s room for one last look, the official said.
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The Pope later arrived in the ancient city of Ur for an interfaith meeting at the traditional birthplace of Abraham, the Biblical patriarch revered by Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
“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 desecrate his name by hating our brothers and sisters,” Pope Francis said. extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: they are betrayals of religion. “
The religious leaders rose to greet him. While the Pope wore a mask, few of the leaders on the tent stage did. The meeting took place in the shadow of the magnificent ziggurat of Ur, 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 former Jewish community was decimated in the 20th century by violence and mass emigration fueled by the Arab-Israeli conflict, and only a few remain.
The Vatican said the historic visit to Sistani was an opportunity for Pope Francis to emphasize the need for collaboration and friendship between different religious communities.
In a statement issued by his office after the meeting, Sistani stated that Christians must “live like all Iraqis, in security and peace and with full constitutional rights.”
He noted the “role that religious authority plays in protecting them and others who have also suffered injustice and damage in recent years.”
Sistani wished Pope Francis and the followers of the Catholic Church happiness, and thanked him for taking the trouble to visit him in Najaf, the statement said.
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For Iraq’s dwindling Christian minority, a show of solidarity from Sistani could help secure their place in Iraq after years of displacement and, they hope, ease intimidation by Shiite militiamen against their community.
Iraqis applauded the meeting of two respected religious 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 Haidar Al-Ilyawi, a resident of Najaf. “It is a historic visit and we hope it will be a good one for Iraq.” and the Iraqi people. “
Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday and met with senior government officials on the first papal visit to the country. It is also his first international trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and his meeting on Saturday marked the first time a pope has met a great ayatollah.
On the few occasions when he has made his views known, the notoriously lonely Sistani has changed the course of modern Iraqi history.
In the years following the 2003 US-led invasion, he repeatedly preached calm and restraint when the majority Shiites were attacked by al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists. However, the country was engulfed in years of sectarian violence.
His 2014 fatwa, or religious edict, calling on healthy men to join the security forces in the fight against the Islamic State group increased the ranks of Shiite militias, many of them closely linked to Iran. In 2019, when anti-government demonstrations took over the country, his sermon led to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
Iraqis have welcomed the visit and the international attention it has given the country as it struggles to recover from decades of war and unrest. Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group in 2017, but still sees sporadic attacks.
It has also witnessed recent rocket attacks by Iranian-backed militias against US military and diplomatic facilities, followed by US airstrikes on militia targets in Iraq and neighboring Syria. The violence is related to the confrontation between the United States and Iran following the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and its imposition of crippling sanctions on Iran. President Joe Biden has said he wants to reactivate the deal.
Pope Francis’ visit to Najaf and nearby Ur crosses provinces that have experienced recent instability. In Nasiriyah, where the Plains of Ur are located, protest violence killed at least five people last month. Most were killed when Iraqi security forces used live ammunition to disperse crowds.
Protest violence was also seen in Najaf last year, but it subsided as the massive anti-government movement that engulfed Iraq gradually subsided.
