Catherine Marciano with Maya Gebeily in Baghdad
Najaf, Iraq – Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shi’a Muslims, told Pope Francis in a historic meeting in Iraq on Saturday that the country’s Christians should live in “peace.”
The meeting, on the second day of the first-ever papal visit to Iraq, marked a landmark moment in modern religious history and a milestone in Francis’s efforts to deepen dialogue with other religions.
He later addressed the rich spectrum of Iraq’s religious communities at Ur, traditional birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, a central figure in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, where he made an impassioned plea for “unity” after conflict.
The 84-year-old pontiff’s trip to Iraq is an effort to both comfort the country’s ancient but dwindling Christian community and deepen his dialogue with other faiths.