The meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani in Najaf and the interfaith prayer in Ur of the Chaldeans are laying the foundations for an Iraq based
on coexistence, pluralism, peace and a multicultural vision.
Analysts and commentators, from Iran to Israel, stress the “historic” significance of this morning’s meeting between the pontiff and the Shia spiritual leader and the dialogue between different faiths in the birthplace of Abraham, father of the three great monotheistic religions.
This “rare and special” event received “an unusually wide media coverage,” said Saad Salloum, journalist and associate professor of political science at Baghdad’s prestigious Al-Mu-stanciriyya University, speaking to AsiaNews about the meeting between Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Co-founder of the Iraqi Council for Interfaith Dialogue and president of the Masarat Foundation, dedicated to the protection of diversity, Salloum described the meeting as “a symbolic visit between two similar personalities: both with great spirituality but humble; the latter lives in a small house in Najaf, considered the Shia Vatican, while the former resides in a flat in Santa Marta.”