Pope and Sistani affirm inter-faith harmony at historic meet

The meeting marked a landmark moment in modern religious history.

Pope Francis and Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence on Saturday, urging Muslims in the war-weary Arab nation to embrace Iraq’s long-beleaguered Christian minority during a historic meeting in Najaf.

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The meeting, on the second day of the first-ever papal visit to Iraq, marked a landmark moment in modern religious history and in terms of Francis’s efforts to deepen interfaith dialogue.

Pope Francis later addressed the rich spectrum of Iraq’s religious communities at Ur, traditional birthplace of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him), a central figure in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, where he made an impassioned plea for “unity” after conflict.

His meeting with the grand ayatollah in Najaf lasted 50 minutes, and Sistani’s office put out a statement shortly afterwards thanking Francis for visiting the holy city.

Sistani, 90, “affirmed his concern that Christian citizens should live like all Iraqis in peace and security, and with their full constitutional rights,” it said.

Francis then headed straight to the desert site of the ancient city of Ur, where Prophet Abraham is believed to have been born in the second millenium BC. “It all started from here,” Francis said, after hearing from representatives of Iraq’s diverse religious communities.

Shia and Sunni sheikhs, as well as Christian clerics, were there.