Pope Francis meets top Iraq Shiite cleric Sistani in interfaith milestone

NAJAF, Iraq: Pope Francis extended his hand to the world's Shiite Muslims on Saturday, meeting top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in a landmark moment in modern religious history.

The two elderly, respected men of religion met at Sistani's humble home in the shrine city of Najaf early on Saturday (Mar 6), the second day of the first-ever papal visit to Iraq.

Pope Francis’ meeting in the holy southern city of Najaf, during a whirlwind and risky tour of Iraq, marked the first time a pope has met with such a senior Shiite cleric.

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.

He landed at the Najaf airport, where posters had been set up featuring a famous saying by Ali, the fourth caliph and the Prophet Mohammed's relative, who is buried in the holy city.

"People are of two kinds, either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity," read the banners.

State-owned Ekhbariya television showed the pope's large convoy moving through Najaf, where children lined a street and waved Iraqi and Vatican flags at the leader of the world's Catholics.

He stepped out in one of Najaf's tiny alleyways and an AFP correspondent saw him cross the threshold into Sistani's office.

No press were allowed inside the meeting as the 90-year-old Grand Ayatollah is highly reclusive and almost never seen in public.

After his meeting with Sistani, Pope Francis headed to the ruins of ancient Ur in southern Iraq, revered as the birthplace of Abraham, father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He is scheduled to give a speech at an inter-religious meeting.

After flying back to Baghdad, he is expected to deliver mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of Saint Joseph.

READ: Pope Francis arrives in Baghdad for risky, historic Iraq tour

The visit is one of the highlights of Pope 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.

"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.

Sistani rarely takes meetings, and has refused talks with Iraq’s current and former prime ministers, according to officials close to him. He agreed to meet the pope on condition that no Iraqi officials would be present, said a source in the president's office.

Pope Francis said he was making the trip to show solidarity with Iraq's devastated Christian community of around 300,000, just one fifth of the number before the US invasion in 2003 and the brutal Islamist militant violence that followed.

Pope John Paul II came close to visiting, but had to cancel a planned trip in 2000 after talks with the government of then-leader Saddam Hussein broke down.

READ: Pope urges end to violence on historic Iraq trip

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," Pope 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.