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| Pope Francis, who is visiting Iraq for the first time in the history of Catholicism, meets with Shi’ite leader Ayatollah Ali Alsistani on the 6th (local time) in Najaf, an Islamic Shi’ite holy land. © AFP=News1 © News1 Dongmyeong Woo |
Pope Francis, who visited Iraq for the first time in the history of Catholicism in 2000, recounted his meeting with Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Alsistani as “good for my soul.”
On the 8th (local time), AFP news agency reported that Pope Francis came back to Rome after his visit to Iraq and said this.
Earlier, the Pope said in an in-flight press conference that at the age of 84, the three-day visit to Iraq was more tiring than the previous trip.
Pope Francis said that it was a “risk-conscious decision” for concerns such as the Corona 19 outbreak and security issues that were raised prior to this visit.
Pope Francis said it was a warm meeting with Sistani on the 6th. Sistani, aged 90 this year, seldom permits meetings because of his extreme clumsy disposition, but Pope Francis was an exception.
Pope Francis said, “I felt the need to go on a pilgrimage of faith and penance and find the great and wise man, the man of God,” he said.
Pope Francis has said many times since he was enthroned in 2013 that he would like to visit Iraq, and this time he has made his dream come true. He visited Iraq for the first time among the Catholic Popes on the 5th and attended the schedule of 4 days and 3 nights.
Pope Francis arrived in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq on the 5th, and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi greeted the pope in person.
After that, he met with Sistani on the 6th and visited the ruins of Ur in southern Iraq, revered as the birthplace of Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
On the 7th, I also visited the Catholic Cathedral of Altahera in Mosul, which used to be a bastion of IS and is now ruined. She met the father of Kurdi, a three-year-old boy who died after the refugee ship was overthrown in 2015.
US President Joe Biden welcomed Pope Francis’ visit, saying he had delivered an important message about fraternity and peace.