by Oui
Thu Mar 4th, 2021 at 07:38:01 PM EST
A three day pilgrimage made under difficult circumstances to be amongst the suffering as a sign of hope. Pope Francis wil meet with the respected Shia leader Sistani. The travel to fulfill a promise is more important than the risk for his personal safety.
Pope Francis to meet top Shia leader Sistani on Iraq visit | Al Jazeera |
Pope Francis will meet top Shia religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani during the first-ever papal visit to Iraq in March, a senior Catholic cleric told the AFP news agency on Thursday.
Louis Sako, the patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church, said it would be a "private visit" between the two religious figures "without formalities".
Sako said he hoped the two figures would sign the document on "human fraternity for world peace", an interreligious text condemning "extremism" that Pope Francis signed with the leading Sunni scholar, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, in 2019.
Pope Francis is set to be in Iraq from March 5 to 8, with visits planned to the capital Baghdad, the northern city of Mosul and Ur, where Abraham is said to have been born.
Iraq rockets
