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Pope Francis to meet top cleric Sistani on second day in Iraq
NAJAF, Iraq, March 6, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Pope Francis begins the second day
of his historic Iraq visit on Saturday with an extraordinary meeting with
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top authority for the country’s 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, aiming to
comfort the country’s ancient Christian community, while also deepening his
dialogue with other religions.
Having spoken to the faithful in Baghdad on Friday, Francis will travel to
the Iraqi shrine city of Najaf early on Saturday to see 90-year-old Sistani.
The two will meet at 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) in Sistani’s humble home in one of
Najaf’s tiny alleyways, with no press allowed, as the Grand Ayatollah is
almost never seen in public.
The visit is one of the highlights of Francis’ four-day trip to war-
scarred Iraq, where Sistani has played a key role in tamping down tensions in
recent decades.
It took months of careful negotiations between Najaf and the Vatican to
secure the one-on-one meeting.
“We feel proud of what this visit represents and we thank those who made
it possible,” said Mohamed Ali Bahr al-Ulum, a senior cleric in Najaf.
On his arrival, the Pope will be greeted by posters featuring a famous
saying by Ali, the fourth caliph and the Prophet Mohammed’s relative, who is
buried in Najaf.
“People are of two kinds, either your brothers in faith or your equals in
humanity,” read the banners.
– ‘High moral authority’ –
Pope Francis, a strong proponent of interfaith efforts, has met top Sunni
clerics in several Muslim-majority countries, including Bangladesh, Turkey,
Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
Sistani, meanwhile, is followed by most 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 a high moral authority,” said
Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, the head of the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue and a specialist in Islamic studies.
MORE/SSS/0854 hrs
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Sistani began his religious studies at the age of five, ascending through
the ranks of 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 stood with Iraqi protesters demanding better public services
and shunning external interference in Iraq’s domestic affairs.
On Friday in Baghdad, Pope Francis made a similar plea.
“May partisan interests cease, those outside interests who don’t take into
account the local population,” Francis said.
Sistani has had a complicated relationship with his birthplace Iran, where
the other main seat of Shiite religious authority lies: Qom.
While Najaf affirms the separation of religion and politics, Qom believes
the top cleric — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — should also
govern.
– ‘Great prestige’ –
Iraqi clerics and Christian leaders said the visit could strengthen
Najaf’s standing compared to Qom.
“The Najaf school has great prestige and is more secular than the more
religious Qom school,” Ayuso said.
“Najaf places more weight on social affairs,” he added.
In Abu Dhabi in 2019, the Pope met Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the imam of the
Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo and a key authority for 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 it is unlikely.
While the Pope has been vaccinated and encouraged others to get the jab,
Sistani’s office has not announced his vaccination.
Iraq is currently gripped by a resurgence of coronavirus cases, recording
more than 5,000 infections and more than two dozen deaths daily.
Following 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 host an interfaith service, with many of
Iraq’s other religious minorities in attendance.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0855 hrs