Pope Francis to hold historic face-to-face meeting with Iraq’s grand ayatollah
By Louisa Loveluck,
Murtaja Lateef EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Pope Francis will make history when he crosses the threshold into a small, rented dwelling in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on Saturday. His visit to the home of Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani marks a powerful moment in interfaith relations, experts say, and millions of people will be watching.
Sistani is Iraq’s leading religious authority and a preeminent figure in Shiite Islam, and his meeting with the pontiff is loaded with symbolism: two global religious leaders sitting down together for the first time, Francis in white robes, Sistani in black, alone except for interpreters, during an encounter that many had expected the coronavirus pandemic would delay.
Francis is the first pope to visit Iraq, and his whirlwind trip through its most prominent religious and political centers briefly puts the country in the spotlight for its religious diversity, rather than for the cycles of conflict that have more often turned the nation’s fate into headlines.
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“Both men mean so much to so many people, even outside their faith,” said Abbas Kadhim, a resident senior fellow and director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “This gives the pope’s visit more than one dimension. Normally, people expect the pope to visit Christian communities, but this visit is completely different: He is visiting Iraq in all its diversity.”
The momentous meeting has been months in the making, almost falling through at least once. It is expected to last less than an hour, and officials overseeing the visit say every detail has been meticulously planned, from how the two men will greet each other to where they will sit.
It will begin with Francis, 84, walking 30 yards from his vehicle to Sistani’s home in Najaf’s old city, a maze of narrow alleyways near the gold-domed Imam Ali shrine, where one of Shiite Islam’s most revered figures is buried. The pope will take off his shoes before he enters.
Sistani’s residence is modest, with little furniture. The 90-year-old ayatollah is reclusive, not known to have left his home in years, and visitors are rare.
“This visit will really solidify Najaf’s place and Sistani’s place at the center of global Shiism,” said Marsin Alshamary, a Brookings Institution research fellow. “It’s also a reminder that Sistani is a spiritual guide to millions of Muslims outside Iraq.”
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Although born in Iran, Sistani has lived in Iraq for decades and is widely recognized as an Iraqi nationalist. He holds political, as well as religious, sway, making key interventions during times of crisis in Iraq.
In 2019, his backing of widespread demonstrations against the corruption that has throttled Iraq’s political system since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion precipitated the fall of a prime minister. In 2014, it was his religious edict that brought tens of thousands of young men out to fight Islamic State militants sweeping across Iraq.
Scholars studying Sistani and the religious establishment from which he hails say that a defining feature of his approach is a desire to achieve stability in Iraq. But his pronouncements have also had unintended consequences.
While the 2014 fatwa urging men to enlist in Iraq’s security forces was crucial to the defeat of the Islamic State, it also allowed Iran-backed groups to cement their power as part of that war effort, deepening corruption and making the country harder to govern.
Francis’s visit comes after Iraq has been rocked by waves of anti-government protests, demanding a political system free of the corruption and identity politics that have brought the system to a breaking point. In a moment of disillusionment and fatigue, Alshamary said, the pope’s visit to Sistani holds out, instead, the promise of hope.
“There really is an opportunity here for an Iraqi figure to bring a message of inclusivity at a time when the public is receptive to it,” she said.
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